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RMENIA AND 
 
 HER PEOPLE 
 
 OR 
 
 Ql\)t Storj) of Armenia 
 
 BY AN ARMENIAN 
 
 A description of the land of Armenia : 
 its ancient and modern history; its 
 physical features; its people^ their re- 
 ligious beliefs, customs, etc., from the 
 oldest dates, as recorded in Armenian 
 Histories and Church Records* A 
 presentation of the true causes of the 
 recent atrocities and a detailed account 
 of the massacres ,^ ^ ,^ ^ ^ ^ t^ 
 
 By 
 
 Rev» George H. Filian 
 
 A native pastor, banished by the Turkish Government 
 from the City of Marsovan, Armenia 
 
 (^* t^* ^^^ 
 
 HARTFORD, CONN. ' 
 AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 1896 
 
 VlX^'u'^'^ 
 
 
coptrioht 1896 
 
 By American Publishing Compakt 
 
 Hartford, Conn. 
 
 (All rights reserved) 
 
 
RIGHT REV. BISHOP M. KHIRIMIAN. 
 
 The Armenian Catholicos. 
 
Coal of Arms and Flags of Ancient Armenia. 
 
 / . The Hjiisf of Hit ig/i . 
 
 g. Tru Dyniisty of Arslngonitiaii , 
 
 3. The Dynasty 0/ Pakradounian 
 
 4. The Kingiiotit of Roubinian 
 
2>ct)fcatlon 
 
 IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE MARTYRS OF ARMENIA WHO 
 
 SACRIFICED THEIR LIVES FOR CHRIST THIS 
 
 VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED 
 
 (8> 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 The Land op Armenia, 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 2! 
 
 11. 
 
 The People of Armenia, 
 
 39 
 
 III. 
 
 The Armenian Dynasties, 
 
 45 
 
 lY 
 
 Rulers of The Ottoman Empire, 
 
 132 
 
 V. 
 
 The Great Powers and The Armenian Question, . 175 
 
 VI. 
 
 The Causes of the Atrocities, 
 
 VII. 
 The Turkish Atrocities in Armenia, . 
 
 VIII. 
 The Armenians of To-Day 
 
 2r 
 
 239 
 
 334 
 
 IX. 
 
 The Future op Armenia and the Battle of Arma- 
 geddon, 350 
 
 X. 
 
 Poems on the Armenian Question, 
 
 (V) 
 
 362 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Portrait op Armenian Catholicos, 
 
 Portrait of Author, 
 
 City op Antioch, 
 
 Map of Armenia, 
 
 Mount Ararat, . 
 
 Kurdish Bandits, 
 
 Oriental Threshing Floor, 
 
 Armenian Flags — Coats of Arms, 
 
 Lake and City of Van, . 
 
 Oldest Church Edifice in the World, 
 
 Portrait of Armenian Patriarch, 
 
 Recent Portrait of Sultan of Turkey, 
 
 Early Portrait of Sultan of Turkey, 
 
 A Bread Seller, 
 
 A Zeibeck, 
 
 A SOFTA, 
 
 Group of Circassians, 
 
 Group of Georgians, 
 
 Kurdish Home, . 
 
 Kurd Chiefs, 
 
 Kurd Woman, . 
 
 Massacre at Sassoun, 
 
 (vii) 
 
 FACE PAGE 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 17 
 
 21 
 
 23 
 
 35 
 
 35 
 
 45 
 
 49 
 
 101 
 
 108 
 
 139 
 
 143 
 
 166 
 
 166 
 
 166 
 
 217 
 
 217 
 
 239 
 
 239 
 
 239 
 
 247 
 
viii ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 FACE PAGE 
 
 Massacre at Erzeroum, 247 
 
 Massacre at Stamboul, 257 
 
 City of Harpoot, 264 
 
 Armenian Peasant Girl, 272 
 
 MousA Beg, Kurd Chief, 272 
 
 Rev. Prof. Thourmain, ' . . 272 
 
 City of Marsovan, 280 
 
 A Water Peddler 280 
 
 City of Trebizond, , . . 300 
 
 Group of Armenian Children, 319 
 
 Group of Young Armenian Women, .... 319 
 
 Anatolia College, 335 
 
 Armenian Family 335 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The problem of Armenia and the Turkish atrocities there, 
 is in the very forefront of the world's burning questions at 
 the present time. In every civilized land it is ranked along- 
 side their own pressing local issues; everywhere there is 
 not only sympathy and indignation, but a feeling of real re- 
 sponsibility. We are a group of Christian nations, and the 
 first Christian nation is being exterminated. Within a few 
 months the unspeakable Turks and barbarous Kurds de- 
 stroyed more than a thousand villages and towns, murdered 
 a hundred thousand Armenian Christians,— men, women, and 
 innocent children,— and left 500,000 others without homes, 
 clothing, or food, thousands of women shamefully defiled, 
 and thousands of men put to horrible tortures. Dying in 
 the streets, in the fields, on the mountains ; dying of hunger, 
 of cold, of storm, and of diseases bred of all these; dying of 
 broken hearts and despair, even more, of shame and mental 
 torture. Yet all these Armenians who thus suffered and 
 were driven forth to starve and die like deserted animals, 
 were absolutely peaceable,— indeed, they were totally un- 
 armed andcould not have been otherwise if they wished,— 
 perfectly respectable, most of them comfortably off, and 
 some of them rich. One who was last week a banker is to- 
 day a beggar; yesterday a merchant, to-day a tramp. Why ? 
 For the main reason that he is a Christian, and the Sultan 
 has resolved to have no more Christians in his dominion; the 
 doom of Islamism is hauging over their heads. " If you 
 
 accept Islam," they are told, "well and good; if you do 
 
 (ix) 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 not, you shall be killed — or worse — as your fellows have 
 been." 
 
 These are all facts, proved to superfluity, though the Sul- 
 tan denies them and instructs his ministers everywhere to 
 deny them. How often has the Turkish minister in Wash- 
 ington, Mavroyeni Beg, oflicially (?) declared the Armenian 
 atrocities to be fiction, giving the papers lying statements 
 (which come from the Sublime Porte), and asserted that the 
 Armenians were the aggressors ! It is precisely as though 
 one should account for a devastated sheepfold, with the 
 wolves raging about in it, by alleging that the lambs had 
 wantonly assailed and slain the wolves first. Some pre- 
 tended to believe this rubbish; but most people, to their 
 credit, are only the more angered and disgusted by it. The 
 Turkish proverbs, occasionally good, are generally evil,— 
 a significant index to the race; one of the commonest is this: 
 " Yalan yigitin kullesi dir " (A lie is the fortress of the 
 brave). Kill, plunder, ravish, and then deny it; not sim- 
 ply deny it, but cliarge those very things to your enemy, 
 and make them an excuse for all you do to him or his. Such 
 are the principles of the Sultan, the false successor of the 
 false prophet of Arabia. At the very time when noble 
 American and European Christians are sending help to the 
 survivors of his massacres, to the half-million homeless, 
 naked, starving, heart-broken beggars he has made from 
 prosi)erous citizens, he coolly denies that anything has hap- 
 pened but the putting down of a few local riots. He writes 
 to Queen Victoria sympathizing with her expressions of 
 humane sentiment, but declaring that the reports were in- 
 vented by evil-disposed persons; that on the exact contrary, 
 it was the Turks who were first attacked while praying in 
 the mosques. He assures the Queen that his measures 
 have succeeded in restoring order. 
 
X PREFACE. xl 
 
 And this same Sultan a few months ago, before the 
 greatest of the recent massacres, wrote to Lord Salisbury 
 as follows:— "Take the words of my honor, 1 will make 
 reforms in Armenia. I will keep before me every article of 
 the desired reforms, and will order the governors of the 
 provinces to carry them into effect." He at once began to 
 put this pledge of his " honor " into effect, by sending orders 
 from Yildiz Kiosk to the provincial governors in Armenia 
 to root out or convert the accursed infidels. Since that 
 promise of his "honor" months have passed away; and 
 during the time at least eighty thousand more Armenian 
 Christians have been killed, and even death has been the 
 most merciful " reform " he has bestowed on the land. The 
 word in his mouth means beggaring, burning, ravaging, 
 violating, mutilating, torturing, and assassinating. When 
 all the leading Armenians are slain and their helpless fami- 
 lies forced to become Mohammedans, after the women have 
 been dishonored,— in a word, when all the Armenian Chris- 
 tians are exterminated, then Armenia will have been re- 
 formed. A special chapter is devoted to the person and 
 doings of this eminent reformer. 
 
THE AUTHOR. 
 
 A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND BIRTHPLACE. 
 
 I was born January 20, 1853, in a suburb of Antioch; 
 twelfth child and youngest son of a family of nine boys and 
 four girls, and therefore considered the Joseph of the fam- 
 ily, and as a small boy went to a missionary school with my 
 elder brothers. My father was a banker and merchant. 
 His partner in the former business was Mr. Edward Barker, 
 English consul at Aleppo; in the latter a Greek, Jabra An- 
 taki, their traffic being in raw silk, for which and for silk- 
 worms Antioch is a great center. Millions of dollars passed 
 through his hands, and he was considered one of the wealth- 
 iest men in the city. A common saying was, " If you can 
 drain the Mediterranean dry, you can drain Filian's money 
 dry." This saying roused the cupidity of the local governor; 
 he imprisoned my father, and proposed to torture and kill 
 him, and confiscate his property. Americans would relish 
 living under this sort of government. His partner, the 
 consul, saved him, however, and won his undjang gratitude; 
 and when Mr. Barker died, my father gave his son a part 
 of his own orchard for a burial ground. The son erected a 
 beautiful $25,000 monument there, which still stands, the 
 ground being owned by my brother, Moses Pilian. 
 
 When I was fourteen or fifteen, my father lost all his 
 money through the failure of others, became hopelessly 
 bankrupt, and was too old to regain his position, and sank 
 into a poor and broken-hearted old man: his Mediterranean 
 was not inexhaustible. He often patted me and said, " My 
 dear boy, I am sorry — I helped your brothers and gave 
 them good educations, and I meant to do the same by you; 
 but I cannoi, for I am too poor. You will have to make 
 your own way." He was a devoted friend of education, 
 himself highly educated, master of three languages,— Ar- 
 
 (xii) 
 
THE AUTHOR. xiii 
 
 menian, Arabic, and Turkish — and of strong reasoning 
 powers, logical, imaginative, profound, and far-sighted. 
 Moreover, he was a zealous Christian, greatly respected and 
 liked. In person he was tall, and very stout, with large, 
 bright eyes, and full, rosy cheeks; built like my great-grand- 
 father, from whose elephantine figure the family took its 
 surname. Filian means " Son of an elephant," and his de- 
 scendants—about 150 in all, one of the largest single fami- 
 lies in the Orient — have been mostly large-framed men and 
 women. 
 
 At about fifteen I had to go to work. One of my brothers 
 being a weaver, I learned that trade from him, and kept at 
 it for three years, weaving both cotton and silk, and not 
 only supporting myself, but helping support my father. 
 Then I took up shoemaking, which paid better, but neither 
 my father nor myself was satisfied to have me remain a 
 common workman. He wanted me to become a banker and 
 merchant, as he had been, and his old friends, who re- 
 spected him, would have given me a chance to start; but I 
 had always been devout from a little boy, and felt that I 
 had a call to be a minister. While making shoes, I prayed 
 the Lord to open the way. I often thought, " Suppose I 
 become the richest shoemaker or even the richest banker 
 in Antioch, what then? Shall I ever be happy? No. Then 
 Lord, w^hat is my call ? " I believed I heard the answer- 
 ing voice of God in my soul saying, " I have created thee to 
 become a minister of the gospel." So I went to a missionary 
 of the American Board in Antioch, and consulted him; by 
 his encouragement I went to the Theological Seminary at 
 Marash, in Armenia Minor, and studied there three years 
 in the preparatory course. 
 
 Before taking my theological lessons I was sent by the 
 missionaries to Caesarea (Kayserieh) to teach in a town 
 near by. On reaching the city the pastor of the Protestant 
 Church invited me to preach to his congregation the fol- 
 lowing Sunday morning. I did so; the missionaries heard 
 me, changed their minds, said I was better fitted for a 
 preacher than a teacher, and sent me to preach at a vil- 
 lage named Chomakli, near Mt. Argaeus. The Lord seemed 
 to fill me with eloquence, and crowds flocked to hear me. 
 
XIV THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Then the missionaries called me to a larger field, Talas, their 
 central town; the same fortune attended me there, and 
 steadily followed me in the other places to which I went. 
 I will not make a long story of it. Enough to say that I 
 always felt utterly helpless before preaching, empty of 
 matter and words; I went to my room and cried to my 
 Heavenly Father, and always overflowed with things to 
 say when the time came. There was no limit to my im- 
 agination; illustrations thronged upon me by hundreds; I 
 felt inspired from Heaven. I never wrote a sermon before 
 preaching it, but wrote it down literally as soon as I had 
 finished. — I wrote every Monday, — and they are all ready 
 to be published in both Armenian and Turkish. 
 
 1 was a successful preacher, but I had no theological ed- 
 ucation (though I studied my Bible hard), and felt that I 
 needed one. I decided to go to America for it, but the 
 missionaries opposed the plan bitterly. One of the ladies 
 told me plainly it was a sin; that I had no right to give up 
 a successful and useful ministry to go there. I replied that 
 giving up the ministry would be a sin, but not going away to 
 prepare for higher usefulness, and coming back to carry it 
 out. Then she said I had no money to go, and did not un- 
 derstand English. I answered that I had faith that God 
 would create the means. She laughingly bade me give her 
 best regards to her friends when I came. She meant it for 
 a joke, but I carried it out in earnest. 
 
 How I finally came to this country would take too long 
 to tell. I will only say that I crossed the ocean by faith. 
 When I reached New York in .July, 1879, I had only 15 
 cents in my pocket. I worked hard day and night in a 
 rag felt factory in the Bowery, and slept on the rags on 
 the floor, covering myself with a piece of flannel. But the 
 Lord opened the way. I went to Oberlin, Ohio, and studied 
 there, supporting myself by sawing wood for the professors 
 of the Theological Seminary. In six months I could talk 
 English well enough to lecture, and after that time I sup- 
 ported myself by lecturing. Finally I was sent to Nebraska 
 as a home missionary during the summer vacation. On my 
 return I entered the Chicago Theological Seminary, and 
 graduated there in 1882, after which I lectured rather widely 
 
THE AUTHOR. XV 
 
 through the country. Then I went home, and for a time 
 was pastor of the Constantinople Evangelical Armenian 
 Church. Later I had a call from Marsovan, accepted it, 
 and had so large a congregation there that a church with a 
 capacity of 2,000 was needed. I returned to this country, 
 raised the money, left it in a Chicago bank (where it still 
 lies in trust), and went back to build the church. That very 
 success aroused the jealousy of some wicked men, and they 
 falsely charged me with being the leader of the revolution- 
 ary societies in Turkey. On this charge I was banished, and 
 now I am here again,— free and happy with my family, but 
 full of sorrow for my dear people daily martyred by the 
 Turks. 
 
 ANTIOCH. 
 
 The city of Antioch, where the disciples were first 
 called Christians, (Acts xi. 26,) was built by Seleucus Nica- 
 tor, 300 B. C, and enlarged by Antiochus Epiphanes. All 
 the civilized world was then under Roman inile; Rome, 
 Antioch, and Jerusalem were the leading cities. Jerusalem 
 being a Jewish city, and Rome being a Roman heathen 
 city, there was no room in either to preach the gospel freely; 
 nor indeed in any other — the disciples were persecuted and 
 martyred everywhere. There was just one exception — the 
 city of Antioch; that was as free as any American city is 
 to-day. This arose from the fact that when in the Asiatic 
 campaign of Pompey the Great, he came about 65 B. C. to 
 Antioch, he was received by the people with great honors; 
 and was so charmed with the citj, and his treatment, that 
 he made it an absolutely free city for all, for every nation 
 and for every religion, and the Roman emperors continued 
 its privileges. When Stephen was martyred in Jerusalem 
 the disciples were scattered; some of them reached Antioch, 
 300 miles north, and began to preach freely, making many 
 converts. Barnabas was in Jerusalem, but hearing of his 
 brethren's success, he also went to Antioch and began to 
 preach; as he was a great orator, full of enthusiasm and 
 faith, thousands were converted. But he was not satis- 
 fied. Crossing the Bay of Iskenderoon, about eighty miles 
 off, he went to Tarsus, where Paul, now a convert, was liv- 
 
xvi THE AUTHOR 
 
 ing, auci induced Taul to return \yitli him to Antiocb that 
 tliey might preach the gospel together. 
 
 Only scholars have any idea of the greatness and beauty 
 of Antioch at this time; it was second only to Rome, and 
 was the second largest city in the world, with nearly a 
 million people; so rich and luxurious as to be called the 
 Golden City; so lovely and architecturally imposing as to 
 be called the Queen City. The finest street ran east and 
 west for several miles; it was of great width, paved from 
 end to end with vari-colored marble blocks, and with marble 
 pillars on both sides along its whole extent, on which were 
 magnificent marble palaces of the Roman officers. In that 
 same grand avenue were theaters, singers of both sexes, 
 fortune-tellers, great heathen orators and philosophers, and 
 throngs of people passing along. Paul and Barnabas stood 
 on the marble pavement month after month for a year, full 
 of the Holy Ghost, and proclaimed the everlasting gospel. 
 Crowds gathered to hear them; even the officers and their 
 wives, stretching their heads from the windows of their 
 palaces, listened to them; they gained disciples from every 
 rank for Christ and His religion, and the converts there first 
 received the name of Christians. 
 
 This was my birthplace and my relatives still live there. 
 Since the time of Christ and his disciples, Antioch has 
 been ten times destroyed by earthquakes. In the fourth 
 century the whole city was destroyed, and 250.000 people 
 were buried under the ruins. That beautiful street and its 
 magnificent palaces are now buried two or three yards be- 
 low the surface of the ground. In 1872, when I was there, 
 an earthquake destroyed the whole city, and almost in a 
 moment several thousand people perished. Several of my 
 own relatives and many of my friends were killed. The 
 city has now only 25,000 people, most of them Mohammedan 
 Turks. There are many Fellahin, and perhaps 2,000 
 Greeks, and 500 Armenians, but in the suburbs the Armen- 
 ians are more numerous, and are the intellectual heads of 
 the whole. 
 
 Antioch is still a beautiful and stately city, and a great 
 center for licorice, raw silk, wheat, and soap. The finest 
 soap is manufactured there. About thirty factories make 
 
THE AUTHOR. 
 
 xvii 
 
 it, from pure olive oil and daphne oil, the latter giving it a 
 sweet fragrance. The daphne groves are very numerous. 
 The city has excellent orchards and vineyards, orange trees, 
 olive trees, fig trees, yeniduinya trees, palm trees, pome- 
 granate trees. All sorts of fruits, in every season of the 
 year, are fresh on the branches. But for occasional earth- 
 quakes, it would be a queen city yet; none could surpass its 
 beauty or fruitfulness. 
 
 GEORGE H. FILIAN. 
 
 CITY OF ANTIOCH. 
 
 3 
 
-^^^^ 
 
 
 i/7^; 
 
 /*-C ^-^^-Vx^-i^ *^ ^/4^*-fr V^T-^l -f ' l*-«?*n Vv-:y-/ ♦^V"*'*^ 
 
 xrith'^T' " *^ **— •;-?.- *»-- >-^h'xf -'^-' — — /jhrV>^^>*;; 
 
Translation of a letter (see opposite page) written in 
 1842 by the District Catholicos at city of Sis to Kevork 
 Filian (father of the author) in Antioch : 
 
 Red Seal 
 
 of 
 
 Catholicos. 
 
 Symbol 
 
 in colors 
 
 representing 
 
 an Altar, 
 
 Symbol 
 in colors „ 
 
 Michael Catholicos, The servant of Jesus 
 
 representing q^^^^^ ^^y ^^e grace of our Lord, the 
 
 the name supreme father of all Armenians who live 
 
 Jesus Christ, in Great Seleucia. I the servant of St. 
 
 Gregory's right hand and most Holy throne 
 
 of the Holy Mother Church. Greetings of 
 
 love and blessings upon my spiritual son Kevork Filian 
 
 esteemed and honored and to all who belong to his family, 
 
 perpetual happiness through Jesus Christ. 
 
 Honorable Gentleman. You will be informed through 
 my letter of spiritual greetings and blessings that truly 
 and earnestly, more than a father, I am willing to bestow 
 upon you my blessings and praises, and in order to show 
 my respect practically, I feel it my duty to thank you for 
 your hospitality, when I came to your blessed home, as a 
 spiritual father, where I was entertained and received 
 proper honors. The Lord bless your valuable soul and 
 keep you prosperous and happy through the mediation of 
 Jesus and St. Gregory. The Lord give you and to all those 
 who belong to you, power and ability in doing good. For 
 a long time I have desired to send to you this letter 
 of blessing; but I have not been able. Now I am glad to 
 send to you one of my spiritual sons Rev. Sarkis Vartabed 
 (a preacher). When he comes he will see your good deeds 
 and enjoy your hospitality. May 4. 1842. 
 
 (xix) 
 
AUTHOE'S EXPLANATIOK 
 
 The author feels that it is due to both his Armenian 
 readers and himself to explain why, in some points, he has 
 deviated alike from the Armenian historians and his own 
 conviction. It is because on these points, the Armenian 
 records are in irreconcilable conflict with those of Rome or 
 Persia, or both, and in a book mainly for Anglo-Saxon read- 
 ers it is not possible to defy the general consensus of western 
 scholarship, which, in my judgment, has not given proper 
 weight to Armenian sources. I will specify only two or 
 three items ; if my Armenian friends notice other contra- 
 dictions of their accepted history they will be safe in setting 
 them down to the same cause. 
 
 It is a commonplace of Armenian history that St. 
 Gregory, the Illuminator, the Christianizer of Armenia, was 
 the son of Anag, the murderer of King Chosroes (see page 72) 
 born about the time of the murder, and made himself the 
 companion of Chosroes' son, Tiridates, partly in order to 
 atone for his father's crime. I am very reluctant to omit 
 this fact; but the birth of Gregory and the death of Ardashir 
 will not fit according to western dates, though they are 
 coherent from Armenian. 
 
 I have also given twenty years' rule and a good character 
 to King Artavasdes, who reigned three and was a coward. 
 
 Most unwillingly of all, I have changed a very full and 
 eulogistic account of Moses Khorenatzi, the great national 
 historian of Armenia, for a meager and depreciating one. 
 That he lived in the fifth century and wrote as an eye and 
 ear witness, instead of being a not wholly veracious com- 
 piler of two centuries later, and that his history is sound 
 and consistent, is my firm belief. That his work is better 
 known than all other Armenian works together, and is the 
 one native book that has become a standard western classic, 
 shows the powerful genius of the man. 
 
 GEORGE H. FILIAN. 
 
 (XX) 
 
I. 
 
 THE LAISTD OF AEMEE^IA. 
 
 PHYSICAL FEATURES. 
 
 Where is Armenia ? It seems a simple question, 
 yet during my lecturing in the United States I have 
 met far more people who did not know than who did. 
 That is natural enough, for until the late horrors, it 
 seemed little more than a name of old history, of no 
 present importance ; but there is a further reason. The 
 present Sultan forbids the use of the name altogether, 
 and insists on the district being termed Kurdistan, 
 or called by the names of its vilayets, Diarbekr, Yan, 
 Erzroom, etc. Many maps do not have the name 
 Armenia at all. A few years ago, when the mission- 
 aries of the American Board were organizing the col- 
 lege at Harpoot, now so bloodily famous, they named 
 it Armenia College; but the Sultan forbade it on 
 the ground that there was no longer an Armenia, and 
 the use of the name would encourage the Armenians* 
 to revolt. The missionaries were forced to change the 
 name to Euphrates College. If any Turkish subject 
 uses the word, he is fined and imprisoned ; if it is used 
 in any book, the book is confiscated, and the author 
 banished or killed. The study of Armenian history 
 
 *Tbe word " Armenian " is not altogether indicative of race, it refers more 
 particularly to those who are Christians. Any who have forsaken the faith and 
 become Mohammedans are no longer regarded as Armenians, but are Turks. 
 
 (21) 
 
22 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 is forbidden to tlie Armenians; they must be kept in 
 ignorance about their own land, so that many of them 
 do not know where Armenia was or what Armenia is. 
 A letter directed to any person or place in Armenia 
 will never reach its destination; for the Turkish pos- 
 tal authorities recognize no such address. There is 
 still another cause for the widespread ignorance 
 concerning Armenia. It has been partitioned be- 
 tween three different powers, Turkey, Russia, and Per- 
 sia. The northern part, from Batoum on the Black 
 Sea to Baku on the Caspian, — the river Araxes being 
 the boundary to near Mt. Ararat, — belongs to Bus- 
 sia; the southeastern course of the Araxes from near 
 Mt. Ararat, to Persia ; the largest and most fertile part, 
 the western, from Mt. Ararat to the Black Sea and 
 the Kizil-Irmak to Turkey. But at the time of its 
 greatest extent and power, when its people were great 
 and its kings were great, long before Alexander's con- 
 quest, — Armenia covered about 500,000 square 
 miles, and stretched from the Black Sea and the Cau- 
 casus on the north to Persia, and Syria on the south, 
 from the Caspian and a much smaller Persia on the 
 east, to Cilicia and far beyond the Halys (Kizil-Ir- 
 mak) on the west, but including also old Media and a 
 part of Mesopotamia. 
 
 It is one of the most picturesque of countries; tra- 
 velers call it the Switzerland of Asia. Its general 
 character is that of a plateau some 4,000 feet above 
 the sea, a natural garden watered by noble streams 
 and studded with beautiful lakes; but the mountain 
 
MOUNT ARARAT. 
 
THE LAND OF ARMENIA. 23 
 
 ranges are 7,000 to 8,000 on the average, while that 
 historic land-mark, the superb snow-capped Mt. Ara- 
 rat, is about 1 8,000, — towering toward Heaven nearly 
 in the center of Armenia, piercing and ruling over the 
 clouds and the storms. 
 
 Armenia is the mother land, the cradle of human- 
 ity, and all other lands are her daughters; but she is 
 fairer than any other. Even her mountain tops of per- 
 petual snow are a crown of glory; the sun kisses her 
 brow with the smile of morning; and she supplies the 
 beautiful rivers, Euphrates, Tigris, Pison, Araxes, 
 and many others from the jewels of her crown. These 
 rivers penetrate to every corner of the land; traverse 
 many hundreds of miles to give life to the fields, the 
 vineyards, and the orchards, to turn the mills, and final- 
 ly close their course in the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea, 
 and the Gulf of Persia, carrying the bounty and good- 
 will messages of the mother land to her children in re- 
 mote parts, to Persia, India, and Russia. Erom the 
 same inexhaustible reservoir she feeds her noble 
 lakes; Sevan (Gokche), TJrumiah, Van and the rest. 
 Lake Sevan is the only sweet-water lake; the 
 others are salt. The most important is Lake Van, 
 probably the most elevated of any large-sized lake in 
 the world; it is 5,400 feet above sea level, and its area 
 is 1,400 square miles. A few words from the author's 
 respected teacher. Professor Philip Schaff, will not 
 be amiss. Schaff's Bible Dictionary, page 68, 
 "Physical Eeatures of Armenia," says: "It is 
 chiefly an elevated plateau about 7,000 feet above 
 
24 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 the level of the sea, the highest peak being Mt. Ararat. 
 The lower portions of the plateau are broken by val- 
 leys and glens, including the fertile valleys of the Eu- 
 phrates and Tigris. It is watered by four large 
 streams, the Araxes, the Kur, the Euphrates, and the 
 Tigris ; also by numerous lakes, one of the largest, the 
 salt Lake Van, being over 5,400 feet above the sea." 
 
 NATURAL RESOURCES. 
 
 The mineral wealth of Armenia is very great ; but 
 like the other potential riches of the Turkish Em- 
 pire, it profits nobody, not even the greedy despot 
 whose word is death. Gold, silver, copper, iron, and 
 minor metals, besides marble and other beautiful 
 stones, are present in abundance. About three miles 
 from Marsovan, where I preached, is a mountain called 
 Tarshan Dagh (rabbit mountain), rich in gold; another 
 called Goomish Dagh, about eight miles west, is laden 
 Avith silver; and they are likely to remain so, for no 
 one will rifle them of their treasures while Turkey en- 
 dures. The Sultan, it is true, sends an officer from 
 Constantinople under large salary, to take out the pre- 
 cious metals, but that person does very little work. 
 He lives like a lord, lets things go as they will, bribes 
 the palace officials, and all the gold and silver extracted 
 does not pay his wages. The Sultan mil not permit 
 Christians to work mines, and if they did, he would 
 rob them of the proceeds. Everywhere the condition 
 is the same. Though Armenia is the oldest inhabited 
 country, she is, in utilization, the newest ; much newer 
 
THE LAND OF ARMENIA. 25 
 
 than the United States, for indeed she does not exist 
 yet. She is a virgin land, her mines not open, her 
 soil not half tilled. The Turks and the Kurds are 
 lazy and stagnant ; they will do nothing, and they will 
 not permit the industrious Armenian Christians to do 
 anything of importance. 
 
 The country has all the old fertility which made 
 Asia Minor under the Byzantine Empire the garden 
 of the world, till the Turks half turned it into a desert, 
 as they do every spot accursed by their presence. The 
 grain, the fruit, the vegetables are hardly, if at all, to 
 be equaled. The watermelons raised on the banks 
 of the Euphrates and the Tigris are the largest and 
 sweetest of their kind; two melons are sometimes a 
 cameFs load. It is impossible for a family to use the 
 whole of such a melon, which has to be cut up and sold 
 in pieces. The grapes, either fresh or in the shape 
 of wine or raisins, are of the first rank. Many varie- 
 ties when cured and dried as raisins exceed in size 
 the plumpest grapes of other lands. Nearly every- 
 thing is raised or grows wild in Armenia which is to 
 be had in the Northern or Southern States of America, 
 though of course each country has some things pecu- 
 liar to itself. The products of the North are paral- 
 leled by those of the rugged picturesque highlands of 
 North Turkish and Russian Armenia, with their cold, 
 snowy winters, short, hot summers, and mild inter- 
 vening seasons; those of the South find their counter- 
 parts from the rich upland valleys, or the lowland 
 plains needing irrigation, of Kurdistan and Persian 
 
26 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Armenia (Azerbijan), with its semi-tro23ical climate, 
 and alternations of wet and dry seasons. The grain 
 crops are wheat, Indian corn, barley, and oats. Cot- 
 ton is one of the main products ; a great deal of tobacco 
 and rice are raised; and sugar is made in the Persian 
 part. In the fields and gardens you can find not only 
 the wonderful melons I have just spoken of, but 
 pumpkins and squashes, lettuce and egg-plant, and 
 indeed most of the vegetables that come to an Ameri- 
 can table. As to fruits, all that you know we know 
 also, only of finer flavors. Asia Minor is the original 
 home of the quince, the apricot, and the nectarine, 
 and I believe of the peach too ; while our apples, pears, 
 and plums are incomparable. The Muscat apples of 
 Amassia are exceptional even there. After eating 
 them, one hardly wonders that Adam and Eve could 
 not resist the temptation of doing the same, at the 
 cost of innocence and Eden. The pears of Malatia 
 keep them company ; and the quince grows sometimes 
 as large as a man's head. Another fruit equally im- 
 portant is the mulberry for silk-worms. The olive 
 and ^g are cultivated and also grow wild, and filberts 
 and walnuts can be gathered anywhere in the woods, 
 as well as orchards; of course not the American '^ hick- 
 ory nuts," but the " English walnuts " of the gro- 
 ceries. 
 
 In spite of the dreadful roads, and the lack of pro- 
 tection for travelers, the Armenians manage to send a 
 good deal of grown or manufactured stuff to the ports 
 on the Black and Caspian seas, — Trebizond, Batoum, 
 
THE LAND OF ARMENIA. 27 
 
 Poti, Baku, — silk and cotton, and fabrics made from 
 them; hides and leather, including lambskins; wine, 
 dried fruits, raisins, tobacco, drugs, and dyestuffs, 
 wax, and other things. 
 
 Methods of cultivation are probably much like 
 what they were in Abraham's time ; there are no very 
 modern machines or even tools. The plough is not 
 quite the mere scratching-stick of the savages, to be 
 sure ; but it is only a crooked piece of wood with a bit 
 of iron fastened to the end that touches the ground, 
 drawn by oxen and held by the farmer. The fields of 
 grain are reaped by the sickle as of old ; it takes as long 
 to cut down one acre so as fifty by a common mowing 
 machine. The sheaves are carried to a gal or thresh- 
 ing floor near the house, an open platform, not shel- 
 tered from the weather; and there the grain is sepa- 
 rated from the straw by a process so curious that I 
 doubt if any American, save a missionary to Armenia, 
 has ever heard of it. It is not treading it out under 
 the feet of the cattle, as pictured in the Bible, nor 
 beating it out with a flail; both these methods kept 
 the straw whole. A threshing board is made by 
 fastening hundreds of sharp flints into a wooden 
 frame; the grain is placed between this and the 
 threshing floor, the oxen attached to the board, and 
 the farmer sitting on it drives them round and round 
 in a circle until the straw is cut fine, and the grain 
 well rubbed and shaken loose. Then, on the first 
 windy day, he takes the old hand fan or winnow, and 
 separates the grain from the straw, keeping the latter 
 
28 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 to feed the animals in winter; for the long grass of 
 American plateaus, and the barns of hay from them, 
 are seldom seen in Armenia. 
 
 The wheat crops are extraordinary ; not only great 
 in yield, but the grains often double the size of ordi- 
 nary American wheat, as compared with specimens 
 from the large and representative fields of Minnesota 
 
 and Nebraska. 
 
 TAXATION. 
 
 But when this wheat is threshed out, the farmer 
 cannot shovel it up and grind, or sell, or put it into 
 bins; no indeed ! He cannot take up a quart of it 
 without permission from the government; for the gov- 
 ernment claims one-eighth of it as a tax, — it was 
 always a ^^ tithe " or tenth from the oldest historic 
 times down to the present Sultan, but he raised the 
 percentage to an eighth, — and it must stay on that 
 exposed threshing floor, in rain or winds, or any sort 
 of weather, till the tax-gatherer comes and measures 
 it, which may be a week, or two weeks, or a month, 
 and will be forever unless he is bribed to come. Nor 
 is even this double tax all; the tax-gatherer is a tax 
 farmer, — that is, he pays a lump sum to the govern- 
 ment for the taxes of a district, and all he can get 
 above that is so much profit to him; so if the grain 
 on a threshing floor actually measures ten bushels, say, 
 he will write it fifteen. After the farmer has paid 
 first the tax on the land to the government direct, then 
 the double, or rather treble, tax to the gatherer on the 
 crops, more than half the income he can get from the 
 
THE LAND OF ARMENIA. 29 
 
 land has gone to the government. I do not know an 
 Armenian farmer who is not in debt ; they work hard, 
 but the products of their labor go to the government 
 and the Kurds, and any one who complains is con- 
 sidered a revolutionist, and imprisoned or killed. The 
 simple unvarnished truth is that an Armenian Chris- 
 tian has no rights of life or property whatever; and 
 all he keeps of either (not very much) is what the reg- 
 ularly appointed officials or the self-appointed Kurdish 
 fleecers choose to leave him. 
 
 This, however, is anticipating. I have only 
 begun on the catalogue of taxes which strip most 
 Armenians, and are intended to strip them, of every- 
 thing but the means of sustaining life and perpetuating 
 their race. When a boy is born, a poll-tax is laid on 
 him, — two dollars on the average, — which must be 
 paid every year as long as he lives, whether he remains 
 in Armenia or leaves it. Of course, during boyhood 
 the parents have to pay this tax on every male child ; if 
 a woman is widowed, she has to go on paying these 
 capitation taxes just the same. They are assumed to 
 be taxes in lieu of military service ; the Sultan takes no 
 soldiers from the Armenians, — does not dare, — and 
 this poll-tax is used to raise and pay that very Turkish 
 army which in return butchers the Armenians, just 
 as the old tribute of Christian children was used to 
 butcher their parents. (That the Armenians are un- 
 warlike and would not make good soldiers is ridicu- 
 lously untrue; many of the best soldiers and best of- 
 ficers, even commanders-in-chief, in the Kussian ser- 
 
30 AKMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 vice are Armenians.) When the boy lias attained 
 manhood he pays his own tax, — he must have a paper 
 of citizenship, which must be renewed every year, and 
 for which he must pay ; but he is not allowed to leave 
 the country without providing absolute security, either 
 in property or bondsmen, for paying that tax through 
 life, wherever he may be. Of course this is utterly 
 impossible in most cases, — men of property do not 
 often migrate, and men without property do not easily 
 get people to be responsible for lifelong obligation to 
 let them emigrate; which is one chief reason why so 
 few Armenians, except banished ones, or runaways, 
 are seen in foreign countries. Furthermore, as I have 
 said, he must pay for a passport every time he stirs 
 from home. Land, houses, cattle, crops, are all sep- 
 arately taxed. Suppose an Armenian owns a vine- 
 yard. First, the land is taxed; there is a separate tax 
 for irrigation, a third for the grapes, a fourth if you 
 make wine from them. In all, a vineyard pays five 
 taxes, and the government gets more than the owner. 
 Why don't they emigrate ? ask my American 
 friends. I have given one explanation. Pharaoh 
 would not permit the Hebrews to go away, nor will 
 the Sultan permit the Armenians. Another reason 
 is that even if one has property, it is very hard to sell it. 
 lurks have no money and Armenians no confidence. 
 And to run away to a foreign country, whose language 
 you do not know, wholly without money, is so desper- 
 ate a remedy that most of them shrink from it. 
 
THE LAND OF ARMENIA. 31 
 
 THE CLIMATE. 
 
 Armenia, in my belief, is the healthiest country in 
 the world; I do not say one of the healthiest, but the 
 very healthiest. The climate is excellent all the year 
 round, and, though the winters are severe, and much of 
 the country is covered with snow, yet on account of the 
 elevation — being several thousand feet above sea 
 level, and in latitude 36*^ to 42^, or say from North 
 Carolina to Massachusetts — the air is dry, pure, and 
 agreeable, a preventative of disease, and conducive to 
 longevity. The dread disease, consumption, does not 
 exist there, while dyspeptics, if any are to be found, 
 must have been imported. The perfect type of physi- 
 cal vigor is to be seen there. Generally the Armen- 
 ians are tall, powerful, and ruddy cheeked, full of en- 
 durance and energy. Shrewd and enterprising they 
 are, as reputed; but pure and honest too. They are 
 longer lived than any other people. I have known 
 Armenians of 115 and even 125 years of age; one old 
 lady of my acquaintance at 115 was full of life and 
 fun; I have seen her dance at wedding festivities like 
 a girl of 15. An old gentleman of 125 was my neigh- 
 bor; he worked on his farm as if he were not over 25. 
 He could run and jump and was as gay as a boy, and 
 greatly enjoyed children's society. If the people of 
 Armenia could have the same government, the same 
 encouragements, the same freedom from horrible fears, 
 as the people of the United States, they would live 
 many, many years longer than they do, till it might be 
 
32 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 necessary to kill tlie old folks in order to get rid of them. 
 The most of the American missionaries in Armenia 
 would be sure to echo these words. A returned mis- 
 sionary gave a striking testimony to this effect. He 
 was addressing the students of the Chicago Theological 
 Seminary, and spoke as follows: — " Before I became 
 a missionary I had very poor health ; most of my family 
 died of hereditary consumption, and I was attacked by 
 it. My physicians strongly protested against my 
 becoming a missionary, saying that if I went to a 
 foreign land I would grow worse, and probably die 
 there. I paid no attention to this; I presumed they 
 Avere right, but I was determined to go anyway, and if 
 I must die, to die, in my chosen work. When I offered 
 myself to the American Board, I was allotted to 
 Armenia, and thither I went; my disease disappeared 
 and now I am as healthy as any missionary in the 
 world. You see how stout and vigorous I look, and 
 I do not expect to die soon. But I feel sure that if I 
 had stayed in America to save my life, I should have 
 lost it before this time." He is still living in Armenia, 
 and I hope will live to be over a hundred, as many of 
 the natives do. 
 
 The reader will smile at all this as the patriotic 
 boastfulness of an Armenian, and say perhaps that he 
 can make as fabulous declarations for his own land, 
 wherever he may be; but such claims cannot be sub- 
 stantiated by records and personal observations as 
 these for Armenia can. Take the Bible ; some of the 
 Patriarchs lived to be 700, 800, one even to 969, if 
 
THE LAND OF ARMENIA. 33 
 
 indeed he ever died a natural death; some were taken 
 up to heaven without knowing death; and all these 
 long lives, as will be shown, were lived in Armenia. 
 God's judgment was good. He did not create man 
 in America, Europe, or India, or anywhere but in 
 Armenia. He came down there from Heaven, planted 
 the Garden of Eden there, and from the dust of that 
 land created the first man. When the race had be- 
 come sinful and only ISToah's family were preserved, the 
 ark was not brought to rest on the Eockies, the Alps, 
 or the Himalayas, but on Ararat in Armenia. 
 
 Where was the Garden of Eden ? In my belief, 
 around Lake Van, the highest lake, the largest lake, 
 and the most picturesque lake in the Bible lands; its 
 surrounding country, mountains, plains, flower gar- 
 dens, and orchards, make it a most charming spot, and 
 quite worthy to have been the seat of Paradise on 
 earth. As the wickedest cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, 
 were on the lowest, ugliest, and nastiest lake, the Dead 
 Sea, it is natural that Paradise should be on the highest 
 and loveliest one. A certain very learned Gospel 
 minister, who desired to change my views respecting 
 the Garden of Eden, declared that when the E'orth 
 Pole was discovered the Garden of Eden would be. 
 Some think it was in India, and there are about as 
 many opinions as there are countries on the earth. 
 The Bible, however, seems to be pretty clear about it 
 and settles the question to the Armenian mind; we 
 feel, therefore, that we cannot be far from the Scrip- 
 tural descriptions. 
 3 
 
34 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. 
 
 Both are as hard in Armenia as thej can be, short 
 of impossibility. In the Russian section the roads 
 are as good as in any part of Russia, and there are 
 railroads; but in Persian and Turkish Armenia there 
 are none of the latter, and the roads are very poor 
 bridle-paths. A few years ago the government levied 
 an extra tax to build '' Shosse Yolou " or macadam- 
 ized roads for carriages; but most of the money 
 was spent as usual, in a good time for the Turkish 
 officials; the roads built were wretched, and riding 
 over them in the springless carriages of the country 
 is weariness and torture. Most of the traveling is 
 done on horseback or muleback, while the transporta- 
 tion of goods is almost entirely by camels and don- 
 keys. 
 
 An hour's journey in America in distance is a two 
 days' journey in Armenia, and it must be accomplished 
 on horseback, muleback, or foot; or perhaps in a 
 wagon without springs. Almost all the horse and 
 mule keepers are Turks, Kurds or Circassians, all 
 Mohammedans and of the lowest types, — which does 
 not increase either the comfort or the security of a 
 journey. The tenders and drivers of animals are 
 never of a very high order of men in any country; in 
 Armenia they are specially vulgar, dirty, and some- 
 times dangerous brutes. If you wish to travel with 
 your family, you must arrange with the horse-keeper 
 several days or even weeks beforehand ; if he is ready 
 when the time comes, he calls at your house and tells 
 
THE LAND OF ARMENIA. 35 
 
 you. If animals are used and the family large, bas- 
 kets will be needed to put the children in; they are 
 put on the animals like panniers, one on each side 
 with the mother between. This is attended with more 
 or less danger from accidents of various kinds, liable to 
 occur on the unkept paths, which, rough in some 
 places and horribly muddy in others, are used for 
 roads. As in the case of the writer, who, when an 
 infant, nearly lost his life before he could be pulled 
 out of the mud into which he had fallen from his 
 mother's arms, she being thrown from the stumbling" 
 horse she was riding. 
 
 A more modern way of travel is in springless 
 carriages; which on the rough roads means racking 
 your body horribly, bones, nerves, and all, into out- 
 right and often severe suffering, a pain and fatigue 
 which the traveler feels for a long time. At evening 
 all travelers must go to a caravanserai or khan; often 
 they are all huddled into a single room, men, women, 
 and children, and the room is invariably filthy, and full 
 of every kind of vermin. Such getting about is con- 
 stant torment. 
 
 There is no safety in traveling; Kurdish, Circas- 
 sian, or Georgian brigands may meet you on the roads 
 anywhere, and plunder, torture, or perhaps kill you. 
 A few years ago, when traveling in Armenia with a 
 company of about forty persons of both sexes, we 
 came to a forested pass between two mountains. Sud- 
 denly three men leaped out in front of us; they were 
 Georgian brigands (Mohammedans), armed from top 
 
36 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 to toe. They stopped the caravan, picked out the 
 rich persons and the Christians, and robbed them of 
 all their valuables. They did not search the writer, 
 probably supposing that as a minister he was too poor 
 to be worth troubling. The women were dreadfully 
 frightened, for the robbers declared that if they did not 
 give up their earrings their ears would be cut off, and 
 if they did not give up their bracelets their hands 
 would be cut off. It can easily be imagined that they 
 made haste to relinquish all their valuables. Such 
 robberies take place every day in Armenia, for there 
 is no protection or redress whatever; it is a matter of 
 indifference at best, and probably of satisfaction, to 
 the Sultan and his governors. 
 
 The brigands are not the only robbers. Bear in 
 mind that before any one in Armenia can travel at 
 all, the government officials plunder him. He must 
 get a passport first; I do not mean when he goes to 
 foreign countries, for an Armenian is forbidden to go 
 there at all, — all who are in other lands reached there 
 by bribing the police and running aw^ay, — but when 
 he goes to another place or town in Armenia itself, 
 even if it is not over fifteen or twenty miles off. This 
 passport will cost him from two to five dollars in 
 bribes to the officials to let him have it. When he 
 reaches his destination, the officials of the latter place 
 must examine his passport, and they force him to pay 
 for the examination, else they will not let him enter 
 the town. So the Armenians are robbed at every 
 step whether they travel or stay at home. 
 
THE LAND OF ARMENIA. 37 
 
 Transportation of goods is even harder. Nearly 
 all goods are carried on camels or donkeys which never 
 go more than ten miles a day, and of course much less 
 in bad spots; it takes months and even a year to get 
 goods if they have to come very far, or may never be 
 received. If an Armenian merchant orders goods 
 from Constantinople, say 500 miles away, it takes 
 five or six months at best from the time of sending the 
 order to the time of receiving the goods, even if he 
 ever gets them, no matter what condition they are in. 
 
 The difficulties of transportation prevent the ex- 
 port, to any extent, of Armenian products to foreign 
 countries, and even between neighboring cities ex- 
 change of supplies is well-nigh impossible. As 
 all through the East, there is often famine in one 
 part of Armenia, while there is plenty in other parts; 
 one city may be hungry while another is feasting ; one 
 willing to pay any price but unable to buy, another 
 eager to sell but with no one to sell to ; because there 
 is no way to transport the grain or produce. Yet good 
 highways are not built because the officials embezzle 
 the funds, railroads are not built because it would 
 hinder the Sultan from crushing the people. 
 
 It may be asked, Are there no railroads in Turkey ? 
 and will not the Sultan permit them, and are there not 
 Armenians in the places along their route ? Yes, 
 there are a few short lines; one from Constantinople 
 to Adrianople, one from Constantinople to Angora, 
 one from Smyrna to Aiden, one from Mersina to 
 Adana, one from Joppa to Jerusalem. I think there 
 
38 AHMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 is also one lately built from Beirout to Damascus. The 
 length of the whole system is not over 1,000 miles, 
 one of them is in Europe, part of them are tourist 
 lines, along routes that streams of Europeans would 
 traverse anyway. Some of them were built before 
 the time of the present Sultan ; some of them are near 
 the seashore,, where there are some Armenian emi- 
 grants; but none of these roads are in Armenia. 
 
 Plenty of money has always been available from 
 European and even Armenian sources to build rail- 
 roads; syndicates and private capitalists have tried 
 again and again to get permission to build them; but 
 the Sultan will not grant it, for it runs counter to his 
 fixed policy of isolating the Armenians, to make their 
 oppression or destruction easier. Railroads would 
 mean not only prosperity and strength for the people, 
 but easy gathering and sending out of news to the 
 world, easy bringing of help from the world, lighting 
 up the dark places, and exposing the horrors of the 
 hell now existing. When they are built, commerce 
 will follow; Europeans will flock in, and a new era 
 dawn. Who are the commercial class ? The Armen- 
 ian Christians or Europeans; not a Turk or a Kurd 
 among them. Commerce means, then, the increase 
 of the Christian population ; wealth, greatness, security 
 for the Armenians ; finally freedom from the Ottoman 
 power. Therefore that power forbids any improve- 
 ment of the backward conditions. 
 
II. 
 
 THE PEOPLE OF AEMENIA. 
 
 THEIR LINEAGE. 
 
 Who are the Armenians ? The average Ameri- 
 can knows very little about them, while few even 
 of the educated classes have much knowledge of the 
 race or its history. Many people regard them as bar- 
 barians, partially Christianized. Some think them of 
 Chinese type ; most often they are considered as Turks 
 because the chief portion of Armenia is part of the 
 Turkish Empire; every Armenian feels justly indig- 
 nant at the latter classification. The old story applies 
 of the Irishman who refused to consider himself an 
 American though born in America, on the ground that 
 ^' being born in a stable did not make one a horse " ; we 
 know that the Scotch and English in Ireland do not 
 consider themselves Irish ; we know it would be worse 
 than absurd to call the English children born in India 
 Hindoos. When the missionaries of the American 
 Board first went to Turkey, the people there supposed 
 from the name American, that they must be Indians, 
 and crowded to see ;tliem out of curiosity, but they 
 were much surprised and probably somewhat disap- 
 pointed when they found them very like themselves. 
 In the same way, being born in Turkish Armenia 
 
 does not make one a Turk. The Turks are one race, 
 
 (39) 
 
40 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 the Armenians a totally different one, and different in 
 the very foundation typa^ The Turks are Turanian, 
 the Armenians Aryan. The Turks belong to the 
 Turko-Tataric stock; they are kinsmen of the Tartars. 
 The primal origin of the Armenians will be found 
 in Genesis, Chapter 10, — from Togarmah, the son of 
 Gomer, the son of Japheth; the Armenians are some- 
 times called the Sons of Togarmah. Togarmah had 
 a son named Haig (the Armenian records tell us), and 
 Armenians call themselves Haigian or Haigazian from 
 him; and the land of Armenia is called Hayasdan or 
 the land of Haig. He was a powerful warrior and 
 the founder of the Armenian Kingdom, which began 
 2350 B. C., and ended with Levon YL, 1375 A. D.; 
 thus lasting 3725 years, though with intervals of ex- 
 tinction. Their own kings did not always reign in 
 Armenia; sometimes other nations ruled over it; 
 by way of compensation, sometimes the Armenians 
 ruled over other nations. The people never call them- 
 selves Armenians, or their country Armenia; they use 
 the name simply for the sake of foreigners. But 
 where did the name come from ? Of course as with 
 many very old ones, the origin is somewhat a matter 
 of guesswork. Some derive it from the great King, 
 Aram, the seventh from Haig; some from Armerag 
 or Armen, the eldest son of Haig,— the more probable 
 supposition of the two; still others connect it with the 
 Hebrew Aram (Aramea), the district of Mesopotamia 
 and ISTorth Syria, and derive both from a word mean- 
 ing " man,'' most old names of nations having meant 
 
THE PEOPLE OF ARMENIA. 41 
 
 that originally. Whatever its origin, it is certain that 
 the Armenians are a very ancient nation, — as ancient 
 as the Assyrians or Persians. 
 
 The people belong to the stock formerly known as 
 Japhetic, later as Caucasian (from the Caucasus Moun- 
 tains on the north of Armenia), then as Indo-Euro- 
 pean, now as Aryan; the most advanced type of man- 
 kind, and the most physically beautiful. And what 
 are the people of the United States ? Hamitic or 
 [N^egroid ? Of course not. Semitic (Arab, Jew) ? 
 Certainly not. They are Japhetic or Aryan too — 
 exactly the same as the Armenians. Indeed, the type 
 of face is the same, and the type of character. The 
 Armenians are often called the Anglo-Saxons of the 
 East; they are the same blood, features, religion, and 
 civilization as those of the West, and are true brothers 
 and sisters, though the opportunities of the latter have 
 been greater; however, the ancestors of the former 
 w^ere Christians in Asia before those of the latter were 
 in Europe, and they kept the mother land faithfully 
 while the others ran away. .^~Z. 
 
 THEIR LANGUAGE. 
 
 The tongue spoken by the Armenians is one of the 
 great family now known as the Aryan languages ; cer- 
 tainly one of the oldest of them if there is any dif- 
 ference in the ages of the different branches, though 
 that really means nothing. It has no relation what- 
 ever to the Semitic tongues like Chaldee or Phoenician, 
 nor the Tataric tongues of Scythia, though those were 
 
42 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 in the earlier ages its nearest neighbors, while it is 
 blood brother to languages so widely separated as Irish 
 on the west and Hindoo on the east, to Gothic and 
 Greek, Lithuanian and Latin. Linguists think the 
 whole Aryan family much younger than the Semitic 
 or the Turko-Tataric or the Mongoloid, but this would 
 not be granted by the Armenians witliout much more 
 solid proof than has yet been brought forward. They 
 claim first that Noah and his sons lived in Armenia, 
 which has been shown must be true ; second, that they 
 spoke the Armenian language, which therefore was 
 the very oldest. Some of the arguments in favor of 
 this are as follows :— ^ In Armenia, near Mt. Ararat, 
 are places with Armenian names, which have preserved 
 the same names from the time of !Noah till now. 
 ^N^orth of Ararat is a city named Erivan, which in 
 Armenian means " appearance " ; after I^oah's ark 
 rested on the mountain, the first place he saw was Eri- 
 van. Another city southeast of Ararat is called 
 Nakhichevan, which in Armenian means " the first 
 station " ; it was the first stopping-place of Noah when 
 he came out of the ark. The first chief or King of 
 the Armenians, Haig, built a village and called it Hark, 
 which means " fathers,'' as he was the father of the 
 Armenians; and when Haig fought with Belus and 
 killed him, the place was called Kereznank, meaning 
 " grave '' or " graves." There are many such places 
 in Armenia, where the names have always been the 
 same and are certainly Armenian now, indicating that 
 the language has always been the same; here are a 
 
THE PEOPLE OF ARMENIA. 43 
 
 few: Arakaz, Armavir, Sliirag, Ararat. The latter 
 took its name from Ara, the Armenian king who was 
 the son of Aram, that great King Avho rnled in Armenia 
 for fifty years; the name means " lofty " or ^' holy." 
 These instances show the antiquity of the language; 
 but even if they were not sufficient, it would not affect 
 the antiquity of the race. Many very old races speak 
 languages much less old. The mass of people in Tus- 
 cany are Etruscans, a race which some people hold to 
 be much older than the whole Aryan family ; but they 
 speak Italian, a very modern tongue. A large part 
 of the Basques, believed by many scientists to be the 
 oldest race in Europe, older even than the Tuscans, 
 speak Spanish, much more modern even than Italian. 
 So that it does not follow that the Armenian race, 
 aside from the language, may not be the oldest in the 
 world. 
 
 The old Armenian classic language is very dif- 
 ficult, from the number of particles and participles in 
 it; but modern Armenian is one of the easiest of lan- 
 guages to learn, very regular in inflection and the spell- 
 ing entirely phonetic. ' There are no exceptions or 
 anomalies; for instance, to pluralize a noun, you in- 
 variably add the particle ner or er. Thus, doon means 
 ^^ house;" the plural is dooner. Manch is "boy"; 
 plural mancher; mannugh is "child," mannughner 
 " children." The irregularities of English in these 
 forms are too well-known to need illustration. The 
 Armenian tongue is not only very regular, but very 
 sweet, as well to the ears of foreigners as of natives. 
 
44 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 The testimony of " Sunset " Cox of Ohio is worth 
 citing on this point. He was United States minister 
 to Turkey some years ago, and as such presided at the 
 Commencement Exercises of Robert College in Con- 
 stantinople, that being the rule of the college. In 
 his address on this occasion, he said he did not like 
 Bulgarian (which is a Turkish tongue), because it had 
 no sweetness ; — indeed, there is none in any of the 
 Turkish languages, which are strong and emphatic, 
 but harsh. But he said he liked Armenian ; it was the 
 " sweetest language he ever heard." He went on to 
 say that Adam talked Armenian in the Garden of 
 Eden, proposed to Eve in that language, and succeeded 
 in winning her heart ; in any other language he might 
 not have done it. ^'^ It is the loveliest of tongues to 
 make love to a woman in, and sure of success if the 
 lady knows Armenian." I think he was right; but 
 I think too, that next to Armenian, if not equal to it, is 
 English. It sounds as sweetly to my ears as Armenian. 
 I am an Armenian and my wife is an Armenian; but 
 I proposed to her in English and was successful; not 
 a sure test, perhaps, for any language is beautiful when 
 words of love are uttered in it to ears that are willing 
 to hear; and true love may be successful without any 
 words at all. 
 
III. 
 
 THE AEMENIAIST DY^N-ASTIES. 
 
 According to the histories written by native his- 
 torians from the old Armenian records. 
 
 1. THE HAIGAZIAN DYNASTY. 
 
 This dynasty began 2350 years before Christ, and 
 ended in the time of Alexander the Great, 328 B. C. 
 ^o other recorded dynasty has so long an unbroken 
 succession. 
 
 2. THE ARSHAGOONIAN DYNASTY. 
 
 This dynasty began 150 years B. C. and ended 
 428 A. D. 
 
 3. THE PAKRADOONIAN DYNASTY. 
 
 This dynasty began 885 A. D. and ended 1045 
 A. D. 
 
 4. THE RUPENIAN DYNASTY. 
 
 This dynasty began 1080 A. D. and ended 1375 
 
 A. D. 
 
 I shall try to show the condition of the Armenians 
 
 under the rule of these different dynasties. 
 
 (45) 
 
46 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 1. THE HAIGAZIAN DYNASTY. 
 
 As already mentioned, Haig was the founder of 
 the Armenian kingdom. He can scarcely be called a 
 king, because in his time there was not a great Armen- 
 ian nation; it was rather a tribe, and Haig was chief 
 or governor. His position was like that of Abraham; 
 what would now be called a sheikh; and like Abraham, 
 he was a worshiper of the true God. 
 
 Haig went from the highlands of Armenia to the 
 plains of Shinar to help build the Tower of Babel. 
 During the progress of the work, Belus, a warlike giant, 
 descended from Ham, assumed to direct the enter- 
 prise; Haig would not submit to this, and so returned 
 to his own country. When the undertaking failed, 
 all the tribes became scattered. To wreak vengeance 
 on Haig, Belus resolved to go to Armenia, kill him in 
 fight, and reign over his land. When he reached 
 Armenia with his men on his errand, Haig went with 
 a force to meet him ; a great battle took place and Haig 
 wsls victorious, killing Belus and saving his country 
 from being overwhelmed by the Hamites. His spirit 
 was inherited by his posterity, though recent irresist- 
 ible force and refusal of permission to bear arms may 
 seem to make them submissive. They have battled 
 stoutly against awful odds and with insufficient means 
 for liberty and for freedom of thought and conscience; 
 and millions have lost their lives for those principles; 
 if they could now have arms and help, they would fight 
 and die again for them. 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 47 
 
 After the repulse of this Hamitic invasion, the 
 Armenians increased so rapidly that Haig became a 
 real king and took that title, thus actually founding 
 the Armenian Kingship. They were free, lived long 
 lives, and married only one wife each, — all favorable 
 conditions for growth of population, — it need not be 
 pointed out how slavery and polygamy check national 
 growth. And they kept their faith in the one true 
 God, as their ancestor iNToali did. 
 
 Haig's son Armen succeeded his father, and 
 greatly enlarged the kingdom. He subdued a large 
 district northeast of Mt. Ararat and built cities and 
 towns there. It is most likely the name Armenia 
 comes from him. Some recent foreign writers have 
 the impudence to say that there was no such king, but 
 that his name was made up to account for that of 
 Armenia; but the same records w^hich tell us of Haig, 
 tell us of his son. After Armen we find his son Arma- 
 iss, who built the city of Armavir. 
 
 I will not enumerate all the names of the dynasty ; 
 it would only be a tedious catalogue without profit. 
 T will only mention the most noted ones, and those 
 most interesting from their relations with the Jews 
 or the heathen nations. 
 
 One of the notable kings is Aram, the seventh in 
 succession, and the greatest of Armenian conquerors. 
 He raised and drilled an army of 50,000 men, whose 
 efiiciency and his own military skill and energy are 
 proved by his invading and conquering Media. He 
 then invaded Assyria and conquered a part of that 
 
48 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 country. Xext lie marclied westward and subjugated 
 some of the eastern portion of Asia Minor inhabited by 
 the Greeks, — the later Cappadocia, along the Halys 
 or Kizil-Irmak. Aram named this district the Hayas- 
 dan, translated by the Romans as " Armenia Minor ''; 
 which, oddly enough, in later times became Greater 
 Armenia or Armenia Proper. Aram set over this 
 province a governor named Mishag, with instructions 
 to compel the Greeks to speak Armenian. Mishag 
 built a city which exists in Cappadocia (Karamania) 
 to-day, frightfully familiar from recent events. He 
 called it by his own name; the Greeks mispronounced 
 it as Mazag; the Roman emperors afterwards named 
 it Caesarea, which the Turks corrupted into Kayseri, 
 and several thousand Armenians were massacred there 
 some months ago, which w^ill be described further on. 
 The richest and most enterprising Armenians in the 
 Turkish Empire are from Kayseri, and it is a leading 
 missionary station of the American Board. The 
 writer preached there and in that vicinity for four 
 years. 
 
 The enormous growth of the Armenian Kingdom 
 under Aram, and its conquest of part of Assyria, 
 excited the alarm of the Assyrian king, Mnos. I^ot 
 feeling strong enough to engage in open warfare with 
 him, he thought to compass his destruction by winning 
 his friendship and then putting him out of the way, 
 and, as a first step, sent him a costly jeweled crown. 
 The intrigue failed, however, and Aram lived to a 
 great age, reigning fifty years. 
 
o 
 
 < 
 > 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 49 
 
 Aram was succeeded by his son Ara, called " Ara 
 the Beautiful." The fame of his beauty went abroad 
 through the world; the Assyrian queen Semiramis 
 was so enchanted by the sight of his person that she 
 fell madly in love and proposed marriage to him, but 
 he refused her. This military Amazon was not to 
 be balked so. She resolved to marry him by force, 
 and came with a great army to Armenia to capture 
 the prize; but he was killed in the war, and she took 
 possession of the country, with which she was so 
 charmed that she decided to remain; she removed the 
 capital of the enlarged Assyrian Kingdom to the lovely 
 shores of Lake Van, erecting a palace there for her- 
 self, and building on the eastern side a city named 
 " Shamiramaguerd " (built by Semiramis). Many 
 years later, a king of the TIaigazian Dynasty whose 
 name was Yan rebuilt it and called it after himself. 
 This was the present city of Yan, another great center 
 of the American Board and of Turkish horrors. 
 
 The next great interesting event was in 710 B. C. 
 when Sennacherib of Assyria was assassinated by his 
 two sons, Adramelich and Sharezer, who escaped into 
 Armenia. The king of Armenia at this time was 
 Sgayorti, which means " son of a giant." He received 
 the sons of Sennacherib with gTcat kindness; they 
 married Armenian women, and remained in the coun- 
 try till their death. Their descendants were great 
 Armenian princes, bearing the titles Prince Arziroo- 
 nian and Prince Kinoonian. 
 
 Armenia comes to view again in connection with 
 4 
 
50 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Biblical history in tlie capture of Jerusalem by Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, 600 B. C, and the deportation of the 
 Judean people; the Armenian king, Hurachia, was 
 one of his allies in the siege, and on returning to 
 Armenia carried with him a Hebrew prince named 
 Shampad. This was a very intelligent man, and made 
 himself greatly loved and esteemed by the Armenians; 
 a sort of Daniel or Joseph. He, too, married an Ar- 
 menian noblewoman, and his descendants became the 
 very foremost of the noble families and ecclesiastical 
 functionaries of the country, crowning the kings on 
 occasion. They were called Pakradoonian Princes, 
 and at last one of them founded the third dynasty 
 of Armenian kings, the Pakradoonian. Though the 
 nation is Aryan, there is noble Hebrew (Semitic) blood 
 mixed with it. 
 
 Perhaps the most interesting part of the Haigaz- 
 ian Dynasty comes just before the end; the time of 
 Dikran or Tigranes I. In him both wisdom and 
 valor were combined to an eminent degree. As soon 
 as he succeeded his father, Yerevant, he instituted 
 great reforms to improve the state of the country. He 
 not only enlarged it by conquest, but he greatly im- 
 proved public education and morals, removed obstruc- 
 tions to international commerce, introduced naviga- 
 tion on the lakes and rivers, encouraged cultivation; 
 trade flourished, every acre of ground was tilled, the 
 country was alive with energy and hope. This vigor 
 and prosperity aroused the envy of Ashdahag, King 
 of Media; he resolved to kill Dikran, and to throw 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 51 
 
 him off his guard married his sister, Princess Dik- 
 ranoohi. A plot to murder Dikran was then set on 
 foot; the princess learned of it, warned her brother, 
 whom she loved, and ran away. Dikran collected an 
 army, made a rapid march to Media, surprised and 
 slew Ashdahag, and brought back a vast amount of 
 spoils in captives and goods. He built a fine city on 
 the banks of the Tigris, and called it Dikranagerd, the 
 city of Dikran; it was afterwards the residence of the 
 sister who had saved his life. It is now called by the 
 Turks Diarbekr, and was the scene of a frightful mas- 
 sacre a few months since. The most important politi- 
 cal achievement of his life was assisting Cyrus in the 
 capture of Babylon 538 B. C; the two monarchs 
 were very friendly, and Dikran's Armenian army was 
 a chief factor in the conquest. In Jeremiah's proph- 
 ecy of the capture, about a century before it occurred, 
 he mentions the Armenian Kingdom as one of the 
 actors: " The Kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ash- 
 chenaz." (Jer. li. 27.) 
 
 After Dikran's death his son Yahakn succeeded 
 him; he was considered a god by the people, and wor- 
 shiped as such through a monument after his death. 
 Thus far the people had mostly worshiped the one true 
 God, but from this time they relapsed into heathenism 
 for a while on account of the influences pressing on 
 them from outside. The last king of the Haigazian 
 Dynasty was Vahe. When Alexander the Great in- 
 vaded Persia, Yahe went to Darius' help with 40,000 
 infantry and 7,000 cavalry; but Alexander conquered 
 
52 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 first Darius and then Valie (328 B. C), and annexed 
 both Persia and Armenia. Thus came to an end the 
 first Armenian dynasty, after an existence of 1922 
 years. 
 
 ARSHAGOONIAN OR ARSACID DYNASTY. 
 
 This dynasty began not far from 150 B. C, — 
 close to the time when Carthage was utterly destroyed, 
 and Greece was finally subjugated; it ended 428 A. D., 
 about half a century before the extinction of the West- 
 ern Koman Empire, and about the time Genseric and 
 his Yandals conquered Africa. It is by far the most 
 famous of the Armenian royal houses; for it embraces 
 the very heart of the classic times with which all ed- 
 ucated people are familiar, it brings us perpetually in 
 contact with the most brilliant and best-known of 
 classic names, it is sprinkled itself with names tower- 
 ing up familiar and powerful, even among the Greek 
 and Roman magnates; and, in spite of political ups and 
 downs, it covers a time of immense expansion for the 
 Armenian people, of a firmly rooted growth in num- 
 bers, wealth, and consciousness of national unity, 
 which has enabled the nation to survive and keep its 
 united being through many centuries of dismember- 
 ment, impoverishment, massacre, and attempts at out- 
 right extermination again and again. More thaji all, 
 it covers the time of Jesus Christ, and the conversion 
 of Armenia to his religion, first of all the nations of 
 the earth, as by its history and traditions it ought to 
 have been. 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 53 
 
 During the time between the disappearance of 
 the line of Haig and the rise of the line of Arshag, 
 Armenia was not by any means wholly without kings 
 of its own; but it was mostly a dependency. 
 
 Alexander the Great, after his conquest, put a 
 native governor named Mihran over it; but on Alex- 
 ander's death, five years later (323 B. C), his generals 
 partitioned the Macedonian Empire among themselves, 
 and Armenia fell to Xeoptolemus. His government 
 was at once so oppressive, and so contemptuous of 
 native feeling (he and his court were Greeks, and de- 
 spised all Asiatics), that the people rose and drove him 
 out in 317, under the lead of one Arduat (Ardvates), 
 who remained their king for thirty-three years; but 
 he left no successor, and Armenia was conquered by 
 and became part of the great Syrian Empire founded 
 by Seleucus. It remained so in the main for about 
 three quarters of a century, though the eastern part 
 (Kurdistan), fell under the Parthian kings. Armenia 
 was never a very quiet province, however, and its re- 
 volts against the Syrian satraps kept it much of the 
 time in a half -anarchic state. About 210 B. C. An- 
 tiochus the Great quelled one of these uprisings, and 
 divided the country into Greater and Lesser Armenia 
 (whose boundaries I have described), putting a separate 
 deputy over each. But after his crushing defeat by 
 the Romans at Magnesia in 189 B. C, and having to 
 buy peace by giving up everything beyond the Halys, 
 each governor proclaimed his province an independ- 
 ent kingdom. Zadriades (Zadreh), in Lesser Armenia 
 
54 ARI^IENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 founded a family wliich kept their hold for almost 
 exactly a century, when Tigranes II once more united 
 the two Armenias. Artaxias (Ar dashes), in Greater 
 A rmenia was powerful as long as he lived, and sheltered 
 Hannibal at his court wdien the Romans had set a 
 price on the head of their great foe; but about the 
 middle of the century his family was dispossessed by 
 Mithridates of Parthia, who conquered the country. 
 The family name of this Parthian house was Arshag, 
 rendered by the Greeks Arsakes, spelled by the Ro- 
 mans Arsaces. Mithridates made Greater Armenia 
 a kingdom for his brother Wagh-arshag (Yal-arsaces), 
 whose family remained in succession to the throne, 
 though sometimes eclipsed for long periods from actual 
 occupation of it, for six hundred years. The new king 
 had the great hereditary ability both in war and states- 
 manship which characterized the whole Arsacid line, 
 and the Mithridates in particular, and its great knowl- 
 edge of men. He knew an able man when he saAV 
 him, and liked to raise him up; he promoted industry 
 and built cities; he reformed the system of laws and 
 their administration as well. 
 
 The new line did not escape the usual fate of 
 Eastern dynasties, of having disputes over the succes- 
 sion, in which their neighbors interfered. In 94 B. 
 C, Dikran or Tigranes II (great-grandson of Wagh- 
 Arshag), owed his possession of the throne of Greater 
 Armenia to his third cousin, Mithridates II (the 
 Great), of Parthia, who exacted seventy Armenian 
 valleys as the price ; probably part of Kurdistan. Ti- 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 55 
 
 granes, however, paid no more blood-money to any- 
 body when once on the throne. On the contrary, he 
 began at once to overrun and annex the neighboring 
 states. He first conquered Lesser Armenia, and made 
 it one with its sister again ; then part of Syria, so long 
 • the mistress of his own state ; then, in a series of wars 
 with the weak successors of Mithridates, he half de- 
 stroyed the Parthian Empire itself, not only recovering 
 the seventy valleys he had paid for his throne, but con- 
 quering Media, and annexing Mesopotamia and Adia- 
 bene. After these conquests he called himself " King 
 of Kings '' (that is, emperor, king with other kings 
 under him), which title the Parthian kings had 
 claimed theretofore. He would probably have ended 
 by mastering and restoring the unity of the old Seleu- 
 cid Kingdom in its widest ex;tent, the whole heart of 
 Western Asia, had he not in an evil hour been in- 
 duced by that reckless old fighter, his father-in-law, 
 Mithridates of Pontus, to join him in war against the 
 Romans. Tigranes' own son had quarreled with him, 
 and taken refuge with the King of Parthia, whose 
 daughter he married; and now offered to guide his 
 father-in-law into Armenia if he would invade it as the 
 ally of the Romans. This was done, and Tigranes 
 the elder had to fly to the mountains ; but the Parthian 
 king grew tired of the siege of rock castles, and went 
 home, leaving his son-in-law to carry on operations with 
 part of the army. The great Armenian king at once 
 broke loose and annihilated the forces of his son, who 
 fled to Pompey, just invading Armenia with the Ro- 
 
56 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 man army. Even the great Tigranes was no match for 
 Kome, and had to surrender. Pompey was not harsh 
 with him, but left him Armenia (except Sophene and 
 Gordyene, which were made into a kingdom for his 
 son), and his Parthian conquests; even going so far 
 as to send a Poman division to wrest these from the 
 Parthian king, who had re-conquered them on Ti- 
 granes' defeat, and restore them to the latter. On the 
 departure of Pompey the Parthian once more re- 
 claimed them, but a compromise was finally made. 
 Phraates of Parthia, however, resumed once more the 
 title of ^' King of Kings.'' Tigranes remained the 
 ally of the Romans till his death in 55 B. C. ; a reign 
 of thirty-nine years, on the whole of great glory and 
 usefulness. 
 
 He was succeeded by his son, Artavasdes (Ardvash) 
 II, who inherited that most dreadful of legacies, a 
 place between the hammer and the anvil. For the 
 next quarter of a century the Romans, and the steadily 
 growing and consolidating power of the Parthian Em- 
 pire were alternately irresistible in Eastern Anatolia; 
 it was impossible to avoid taking sides, for neutrality 
 meant invasion by one party or the other; and which- 
 ever side he took he was sure to be punished for as soon 
 as the other came uppermost. If Artavasdes had been 
 as dexterous as Alexius Comnenus himself, he could 
 hardly have escaped ruin; that he kept his throne for 
 over twenty years is proof that he was not unworthy of 
 his father. First came the invasion of Parthia by 
 Crassus; Artavasdes, faithful to his father's Roman 
 
THE ARMENLiN DYNASTIES. 57 
 
 allegknce; asked him to make tlie invasion by 
 way ol Armenia, and offered to help him. Crassus 
 refused, but the Parthian king, Orodes, invaded Ar- 
 menia; however, he made peace, and betrothed his 
 eldest son, Pacorus, to Artavasdes' daughter, just be- 
 fore news was brought him of the annihilation of 
 Crassus' army, guaranteed by Crassus' severed head 
 and hand. The civil wars at Rome for years to come 
 broke the Roman power, and the Parthians (with the 
 good-will of the inhabitants, who detested the Roman 
 proconsuls), swept westward, compelled submission or 
 alliance from all the countries to the Taurus, and even 
 annexed all Syria for a time, just as seven centuries 
 later the Syrians, from hate of the Byzantine gover- 
 nors, gave up their cities to the Saracens. But the 
 Roman power once more rallied; the Parthians were 
 driven out of Syria, and Pacorus was killed ; the aged 
 Orodes, under whom the Parthian Empire proper 
 reached its pinnacle, died, leaving the throne to 
 one of those jealous murderous despots so familiar 
 in Eastern history, who made a general slaughter of 
 his brothers, and even murdered his son, to remove 
 any possible leader of a revolt, and Artavasdes once 
 more returned to the Roman alliance. In the year 
 36 A. D., Mark Antony undertook the task Crassus 
 had so terribly failed in seventeen years before, of 
 striking at the heart of Parthia; but this time the in- 
 vasion was by way of Armenia. It was almost as 
 frightful a disaster as the former; a third of the army 
 of 100,000 men was destroyed by the enemy, 8,000 
 
58 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 died of cold and storm in the Armenian mouctains, 
 the wounded died in enormous numbers; but tZiat Ar- 
 tavasdes let the army winter in his country it would 
 have perished as completely as Crassus' did. In spite 
 of this, the Romans, wanting a scapegoat, laid the 
 whole blame on Artavasdes, without a sKadow of rea- 
 son that can be shown. It was the Zast time for a 
 century and a half that the Romans attacked Parthia. 
 In default of that plunder, they resolved to have Ar- 
 menia, and a couple of years later, in the year 33 A. D., 
 they seized Artavasdes by treachery, and occupied the 
 country. The Parthians at once took up the cause 
 of his son, Artaxes, and made war on the Romans 
 to seat him on the throne; and when the Roman troops 
 were withdrawn to help Antony's cause, which was lost 
 in the battle of Actium, the Parthians overran Ar- 
 menia, and killed all the Romans in the country, and 
 made their candidate king as Artaxes II. This was 
 in 30 B. C, and in the same year his father, Artavas- 
 des, who had been carried to Alexandria by An- 
 tony, was beheaded by Cleopatra. But the very next 
 year the worthless tyrant Phraates of Parthia was 
 driven from the throne by a rebellion, and Artaxes 
 made peace with Rome. 
 
 The history of Artavasdes' reign is in essence the 
 history of the next four centuries, save that the results 
 were incomparably worse. We have been dealing 
 with a time at least of steady, single-handed govern- 
 ment, of able rulers either inside or outside, of some 
 sort of ability to keep the civil structure of the eoun- 
 
 / 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 59 
 
 try from breaking to pieces; but even tliat disappears 
 over long periods in the early centuries of the Roman , 
 Empire. One great .secret of Armenia's misery dur- 
 ing these ages of woe — indeed, to a large extent dur- 
 ing all the ages since — lies in the fact that she is a 
 borderland; a buffer between great states, and indeed 
 between great natural divisions of climate and society. 
 She is the boundary between semi-tropic Central 
 Asia and temperate Eastern Europe, touching the 
 land of the fig and the silk-worm on the one 
 side, and that of the apple and the mountain 
 goat on the other; between Scythian steppes and 
 Syrian deserts. In these earlier ages she was 
 fought for between east, west, and south, — Par- 
 thia, Rome, and a Syro-Egyptian power of some 
 sort; in these days divided between east, west, and 
 north, — Persia the successor of Parthia, Turkey the 
 successor of Rome, while the southern power is ages 
 dead, and a great northern power, Russia, has grown 
 up in the steppes. Had Armenia been smaller, or 
 more level, she would have perished without a strug- 
 gle, perhaps rather would never have existed ; but her 
 territory is so large and so defensible that her history 
 could have been predicted, — final dismemberment be- 
 tween great states surrounding her, yet not without 
 ages of desperate struggle. She was not large enough 
 to be permanently the seat of empire; she was far too 
 large for either rival to let pass wholly into the hands 
 of the other — so she was pulled to pieces. But she 
 
60 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 wanted to control lier own destinj, and made a long and 
 heroic figlit before being dismembered. 
 
 To write the history of the next few centuries 
 would tire out all my readers, and would not do any 
 good; it was a long duel between Rome and Persia 
 for the ownership of Armenia, in which the prosperity 
 and happiness of their unhappy foot-ball nearly per- 
 ished. Almost the whole foreign policy of Parthia 
 was to control, or to have a paramount influence in 
 Armenia ; almost the whole foreign policy of Rome in 
 the East was to do the same thing. For nearly a 
 century following Artavasdes' deposition, though the 
 Romans professed to govern the country and the 
 Parthiaris sometimes held it, and both sides repeatedly 
 put kings on its throne, it w^as actually in a state of pure 
 anarchy. Every great family, seeing it must depend 
 on its own strength for preservation, extended its rule 
 over as wide a district as would submit; nearly two 
 hundred houses acted with perfect independence of 
 each other, and of the nominal government, and some 
 of them established principalities of considerable size. 
 After this, though the country w^as for century after 
 century just the same shuttlecock between the rival 
 states, the feudal anarchy was somewhat reduced, the 
 turbulent nobility better held in check, but it was im- 
 possible that there should be really firm and orderly 
 government w^hen a king could not be secure of his 
 throne for a year on one side or the other, and dared 
 not render his powerful subjects disaffected by making 
 them obey the laws. TV^e may be sure that the gov- 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 61 
 
 ernment was really an oligarchy under the forms of 
 a monarchy, and even the title " King of Armenia '' 
 during this period must not be taken to mean too much. 
 There were sometimes separate kings of Upper and 
 Lower Armenia, one under Roman, and one under 
 Parthian influence; the independent princes often 
 made head against both, and outlying principalities, 
 like those of Osrhoene and Gordyene probably got 
 hold of more or less Armenian territory in the melee. 
 No king of Armenia after Tigranes ever held sway 
 over all of old Armenia for any length of time, if at 
 all. But any king who got an acknowledged position 
 at all was invariably an Arshagoonian ; the people con- 
 sidered that line the only rightful kings. Artavasdes 
 III, whom the Romans seated in power just before the 
 birth of Christ; Tigranes TV, who expelled him by 
 Parthian aid the year of Christ's birth; Yonones, 
 a deposed Parthian king, who got himself chosen king 
 as the Roman favorite in 16 A. D., but was persuaded 
 by Tiberius to retire; Arsaces, son of the king of Par- 
 thia, assassinated by the king of Iberia whose brother 
 was the Roman candidate, about the time of the 
 crucifixion; Ervand, who made himself master of the 
 land after a fashion, in 58; Dertad (Tiridates), 
 set up by the Parthians in 52, and acknowledged by 
 the Romans in 66; Exedarus (Eshdir ?) son of the 
 Parthian king, given the throne with Roman consent 
 about 100, pulled down by his uncle in 114, resulting in 
 the conquest of the country by Trajan ; Sohaemus, set 
 up by the Romans about 150, dethroned by the Par- 
 
62 AKMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 thians in 162 in favor of another Arsacid, restored by 
 the Romans in 164; and the other fleeting monarchs 
 of this long nightmare were all of the same line of 
 Arshag, which in Armenia survived for over two 
 centuries its brother line in Parthia, the last of whom, 
 Ardvan (Artabanus), was slain in battle in 224 by Ar- 
 dashir (Artaxerxes), first of the Sassanian house, and 
 founder of the Persian Empire. But I must go back 
 a little. 
 
 The most important event in the history of any na- 
 tion is its conversion to Christianity, and therefore we 
 wish to know when the Armenians first came to believe 
 in Christ, and how it came about. Of course it did 
 not come all at once; but it came very early, and the 
 story of the first converts is very curious. According 
 to the Armenian church history, and also the great 
 Christian father Eusebius, it came through King Ab- 
 gar or Apkar (Abgarus), the fifteenth king of the little 
 kingdom of Osrhoene, in northern Mesopotamia, whose 
 capital was the fiourishing city of Edessa, now Oorfa; 
 it lay next the southern border of Armenia. 
 
 The church history gives the following account: 
 
 ^^ The origin of Christianity in Armenia dates 
 from the time of its king Abgar, who reigned at the 
 beginning of the Christian era; he had his seat of gov- 
 ernment in the city of Edessa, and was tributary to the 
 Romans. 
 
 " Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Judea, was hostile 
 to king Abgar, but was unable to injure him except by 
 exciting' the Romans against him. He therefore ac- 
 cused him falsely, to the Emperor Tiberius, of rebel- 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 63 
 
 lious projects. King Abgar, on being made ac- 
 quainted with this accusation, hastened to send mes- 
 sengers to the Roman general Marinus, then governor 
 of Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, for the purpose of 
 vindicating himself. During their stay in Palestine 
 these messengers — among whom was Anane, Ab- 
 gar's confidant — hearing of the wonders that were 
 wrought by our Saviour, determined to visit Jerusa- 
 lem, in order to gratify their curiosity. 
 
 " When, therefore, their mission was concluded, 
 they proceeded thither and were filled with wonder at 
 witnessing the miracles performed by Jesus our Lord. 
 
 " On returning to Armenia they related all the par- 
 ticulars to their master. Abgar, after having listened 
 to their narrative, became satisfied that Jesus was the 
 son of God, and immediately wrote to him as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 " ^ Abgar, son of Arsham, to Jesus, the great 
 healer, who has appeared in the country of Judea at 
 the city of Jerusalem — greeting Lord, — I have heard 
 that thou dost not heal by medicines but only through 
 the Word ; that thou makest the blind to see, the lame 
 to walk; that thou cleansest the lepers and makest the 
 deaf to hear; that thou castest out devils, raiseth the 
 dead, and healest through the word only. ^o sooner 
 had the great miracles that thou performest been re- 
 lated to me, than I reflected, and now believe that thou 
 art God and the son of God, descended from heaven 
 to perform these acts of beneficence. For this reason 
 I have written thee this letter, to pray thee to come 
 to me, that I may adore thee and be healed of my 
 sickness by thee, according to my faith in thy power, 
 Moreover, I have heard that the Jews murmur against 
 thee, and seek to slay thee. I pray thee, therefore, 
 come to me ; I have a good little city, which is enough 
 
64 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 for both of us, and there we can peaceably live to- 
 gether.' " 
 
 The messengers sent with the letter were instructed 
 to offer sacrifices for the King at the temple in Jerusa- 
 lem; and one of them was a painter, who was to make 
 a portrait of the Saviour, that if he would not come, 
 the king might at least have his features. Jesus re- 
 ceived the letter joyfully, — as it was the day of his 
 triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the messengers did 
 not venture to approach him, and it was taken to him 
 by the apostles Philip and Andrew, — and dictated the 
 following answer to the apostle Thomas: 
 
 ^' Blessed be he who believes in me without having 
 seen me ; for thus it is written of me : Those who see 
 me shall not believe in me; and those who do not see 
 me, they shall believe and be saved. Inasmuch as 
 you have wTitten to me to go to you, know that it is 
 necessary I should fulfill here all for which I 
 have been sent. And when I shall have done so, I 
 shall ascend to Him who sent me ; and then I will send 
 you one of my disciples, who shall remove your pain, 
 and shall give life to you and those around you." 
 
 The painter could not execute his order on account 
 of the multitude; the Saviour at last noticed him, and 
 causing him to approach, passed a handkerchief over 
 his face and miraculously imprinted on it a perfect like- 
 ness of his countenance, and then gave it to him, and 
 bade him take it to his master as a reward for his 
 faith. The king received the letter and portrait with 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 65 
 
 great joy, and put them in safe custody, and awaited 
 the fulfillment of our Lord's promise. 
 
 After the Ascension, Thomas, the disciple, sent 
 Thaddeus, one of the seventy, to Abgar, as our Lord 
 had directed. Thaddeus went to Tobias, a prince of 
 the Pakradoonian tribe, and consequently a Jew by 
 blood, who received the apostle into his house, and be- 
 came a believer. Thaddeus then began to perform 
 many miracles upon sick people, and his fame being 
 spread throughout the city, reached King Abgar, who 
 sent for Prince Tobias and desired him to bring the 
 apostle to him. This was done, and Thaddeus healed 
 the king in his sickness, and instructed him in the 
 faith. He did likewise to all the people of the city, 
 and baptized them, together with the king and his 
 court. All the temples dedicated to idols were shut 
 up, and a large church was built. Thaddeus then 
 created a bishop to rule the new congregation, select- 
 ing a silk-mercer, the king's cap-maker, for that of- 
 fice, and giving him the name of Adde. It is related 
 that upon the principal gate of Edessa was the statue of 
 a Greek idol, which all who entered the city were 
 obliged to reverence. King Abgar ordered this to be 
 taken away, and placed in its stead the sacred portrait 
 of our Lord, with this inscription: " Christ God, he 
 who hopes in thee is not deceived in his hope;" at 
 the same time ordering all those who entered the city 
 to give it divine honor. This conversion of King 
 Abgar and of the Edessians took place in the thirtieth 
 
QQ ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 year of the Vulgar Era, or in the thirty-third year 
 after the birth of Christ. 
 
 Shortly after, Thaddeus, desiring to spread the 
 light of the Gospel in other parts of the country, went 
 to Inner Armenia to visit Sanadrug, who then resided 
 in the province of Shavarshan or Ardaz. Sanadrug 
 soon became a Christian and was baptized, together 
 with his daughter Santukht, and a great number of 
 the chiefs and common people. Here Thaddeus also 
 consecrated a bishop, named Zachariah, and then pro- 
 ceeded to Upper Armenia; but finding the people there 
 unwilling to listen to his preaching, he left them and 
 went to the country of the Aghuans. 
 
 Abgar, in his zeal for the faith he had just em- 
 braced, wrote to the Emperor Tiberius in favor of 
 Christ, informing him how the Jews unjustly cru- 
 cified him, exhorting him at the same time to believe 
 and command others to adore the Saviour. Many let- 
 ters passed between the two monarchs on the subject 
 of his divine mission. He also wrote to Ardashes, 
 king of Persia, and to his son jN^erseh, the young king 
 of Assyria, exhorting them to become believers in 
 Christ. However, before he received replies to these, 
 he died, in the third year of his conversion to Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 His death seemed at first to have undone all his 
 work. His son Anane apostatized and tried to make 
 his people do the same ; he reopened the heathen tem- 
 ples, resumed the public worship of the idols, and 
 ordered the sacred handkerchief removed from the 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 67 
 
 city gate. Adde the bishop walled up the latter. The 
 king ordered the bishop to make a diadem for him as 
 he had for his father; the bishop refused to make one 
 for a head that would not bow to Christ, and the king 
 had the bishop's feet cut off while he was preaching, 
 causing his death, — the first Christian martyr on 
 record. By a just retribution, the savage king met 
 his own death by a marble pillar in his palace fall- 
 ing on him and breaking his legs. 
 
 Meantime Abgar's nephew, Sanadrug, had set up 
 his standard in Shavarshan or Ardaz, proclaiming 
 himself king of Armenia, — one of the countless chief- 
 tains who took advantage of Armenian anarchy to carve 
 out principalities for themselves. On the death of 
 Anane he marched to Edessa, claiming it as his own 
 inheritance. The people admitted him on his oath 
 not to harm them; but once inside he massacred all 
 the males of the house of Abgar. He spared his aunt, 
 Queen Helena, Abgar's widow, who became widely 
 famed as a Christian philanthropist, and w^as buried 
 with great pomp before one of the gates of Jerusalem, 
 where a splendid mausoleum was erected over her re- 
 mains. He himself had apostatized, and ordered all 
 his people to do likewise ; but most of them refused to 
 obey, and Thaddeus, hearing of it at Caesarea, in Cap- 
 padocia, started for Edessa to reconvert him. On his 
 way he fell in with a Roman embassy to Sanadrug, 
 composed of five patricians headed by one Chrysos ; he 
 converted and baptized them all, conferred priest's or- 
 ders on Chrysos, and they gave up all their property 
 
68 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 and became preachers of Christ. They were known 
 as foUow^ers of Chrysos, and all eventually obtained 
 the crown of martyrdom. 
 
 On the news of these conversions, Sanadnig in- 
 vited Thaddeus to Shavarshan; on his arrival he put 
 him to death, and with him his own daughter, San- 
 tukht, who would not give up her faith in Christ. At 
 her death various miracles were wrought, which caused 
 many conversions to Christianity; among them a 
 notable chief, who was baptized with all his family, 
 was renamed Samuel, and was put to death by the 
 king's order. 
 
 A princess named Zarmantukht also became a con- 
 vert, with all her household, two hundred people in 
 all; the whole of them suffered martyrdom in con- 
 sequence. 
 
 Dr. Philip Schaff says: " It is now impossible to 
 decide how much truth there may be in the somewhat 
 mythical stories of correspondence between Christ and 
 Abgarus, and the missionary activity and martyrdom 
 of Thaddeus, Bartholomew, Simon of Cana, and Judas 
 Lebbeus. But it is certain that Christianity was in- 
 troduced very early in Armenia.'' I, however, con- 
 sider what I have told to be true. 
 
 After this time, Christianity spread in Armenia as 
 it did in other parts of the Greek Empire; rapidly in 
 the cities, where intelligence was quick, and new ideas 
 were welcomed ; slowly in the country districts, where 
 people did not readily change. Its first result every- 
 where was not so much to make people believe in it 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 69 
 
 as to make them disbelieve in Paganism; for every 
 person who actually came to believe in Christ, there 
 were fifty who ceased to believe in Jupiter, or Bel, or 
 Thoth, Venus or Astarte. There would be a flourish- 
 ing Christian church in a great city when most of 
 the people did not have any faith in any religion. But 
 everybody who had a family came gradually to think 
 very well of a religion that gave them the power to 
 teach children righteousness, and enforce it by the 
 command of God; and the respectable classes became 
 more and more Christian. But the fact that till two 
 or three centuries after Christ there was no general 
 attempt on the part of the pagan governments to put 
 down the Christians by persecution, shows that not till 
 then did they become so numerous as to frighten the 
 governments for fear they would before long have a 
 majority; persecution means fear. The governments 
 let the Christians pretty much alone, except for little 
 fits of anger now and then, till they were afraid the 
 growth of the sect would overthrow themselves or 
 bring on civil war. The Christians had become well 
 established in Armenia within a century or so after 
 the death of Christ; but it was over a century and a 
 half before they seemed an imminent menace to the 
 ruling class. Then a furious persecution began, about 
 the same time as that of Diocletian in the Roman Em- 
 pire, and indeed, part of the same movement. Diocle- 
 tian had set the persecuting King Tiridates on his 
 throne, and Tiridates had passed his life from boyhood 
 almost to old age in the Roman service, and had the 
 
70 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 same ideas as tlie pagan Roman upper classes. Yet 
 in the providence of God tliis same Tiridates made 
 Christianity supreme in Armenia, fifteen years before 
 Constantine made it supreme in the Roman Empire, 
 thus making Armenia the first Christian nation. 
 Gregory the Illuminator and King Dertad. 
 
 In the continual struggle between Rome and Par- 
 thia for the control of Armenia, the Parthian kings 
 had one great advantage; they were Arsacids, and 
 could put their sons or brothers on the Armenian 
 throne with the good-will of the people, thus strength- 
 ening their dynastic position without much cost in 
 military force. Often, too, the Armenian kingship 
 was obtained by Parthian princes, who fled after a 
 family quarrel, or after deposition or other misfortune. 
 One of these Armenian kings was Chosroes, who 
 reigned in the time of Ardashir, the first king of Per- 
 sia, before spoken of. It is not certain just who he 
 was; some say a brother of Ardvan, the last king of 
 Parthia; some say the son of Ardvan, who fled after 
 his father's death. Anyway, he was a mortal enemy 
 of Ardashir, and was at first supported by the Romans. 
 Ardashir invaded Armenia, but was beaten later. 
 Chosroes quarreled with the Romans, who withdrew 
 their support, and assailed him, but he defeated them ; 
 and w^hen Ardashir again invaded the country, Chos- 
 roes again drove him back. The old days of Tigranes 
 seemed to have returned, and Armenia to be on the 
 road again to unity and independence; and Chosroes 
 was called the Great. Ardashir was furious at being 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 71 
 
 baffled, and is said to have offered his daughter's hand 
 and a share in the kingdom to any one of his leading 
 nobles who would assassinate Chosroes. An Arsacid 
 named Anag accepted the offer, though he had a 
 wife already, and went with his family to Armenia, 
 pretending to be in flight from Persian troops. Chos- 
 roes gave him a military escort into the province of 
 Ardaz, where he lived for a time in the very place 
 St. Thaddeus' bones were deposited. Later on, Anag 
 removed to Yagharshabad (the present city of Etch- 
 miazin, where the Armenian Catholicos resides), Chos- 
 roes' royal city. Here Anag seizing his opportunity, 
 stabbed Chosroes to the heart. In his flight he was 
 drowned in trying to cross the Aras, and his family 
 were massacred by the soldiery. 
 
 Ardashir had gotten rid of his unconquerable en- 
 emy, and without having to pay the stipulated price. 
 He at once entered Armenia and put to death every 
 member of Chosroes' family save a boy and a girl, 
 Tiridates and Chosrovitukht, who were somehow smug- 
 gled away, and the old game of Perso-Roman foot-ball 
 over Armenia went on as before. Tiridates entered 
 the Roman army, when grown up, and became dis- 
 tinguished there, evidently inheriting his father's mil- 
 itary ability; and remained in the Roman service cer- 
 tainly to the age of over 45, and perhaps till over 50. 
 That the Romans waited all this time before using 
 him as a candidate for the Armenian throne seems 
 strange; but the reason probably is that the early 
 years of his manhood fell in a time when Rome was 
 
72 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 weak and Persia strong. The great Shahpur, Ar- 
 dashir's son, reigned in Persia till about 272; the imbe- 
 cile Gallienus of Kome reigned from 260 till 268, and 
 was succeeded by a crowd of emperors able indeed, 
 but too short-lived to carry out any steady policy, or 
 drive the Persians out of their strong places. The 
 first emperor who found himself in a position to re- 
 store the Roman power in the East was Diocletian, 
 who came to the Roman throne in 284, and it is sig- 
 nificant that he made Tiridates king of Armenia only 
 two years later. As Diocletian was a soldier of for- 
 tune, probably he had known and respected Tiridates 
 long before. Anyway, in 286 Rome once more had 
 her turn in Armenian affairs, and with one short in- 
 terval, kept absolute control of the country for over 
 half a century. 
 
 !N^ow there had been born in Armenia about 257 
 a child who had early been taken to Caesarea by Chris- 
 tian relatives, baptized, named Gregory, and reared in 
 the Christian faith. On reaching maturity he mar- 
 ried a Christian girl by whom he had two sons; but 
 after three years they separated by mutual consent. 
 The wife entered a convent. Gregory, hearing of Ti- 
 ridates' renown in the Roman army, went and obtained 
 service near the prince's person, to be able to have 
 influence with him if he ever regained his kingdom. 
 They became fast friends. When Tiridates was pro- 
 claimed king, he went first to Erija, in the province of 
 Egueghatz, where was a temple of Anahid (Diana), 
 whom the Armenians worshiped as guardian goddess 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 73 
 
 of the country; and making offerings to her of gar- 
 lands and crowns, asked Gregory to join him in his 
 idolatry. Gregory refused to worship anything but 
 the one God. Tiridates ordered him imprisoned for 
 a while, thinking the loathsome dungeon of that time 
 would change his resolution ; finding him still firm, he 
 had him tortured in a dozen frightful ways, and at 
 last taken to the fortress of Ardashad and thrown into 
 a deep pit, where criminals were left to starve. There 
 Gregory remained fourteen years, supported all that 
 time by the charity of a pious Christian woman. 
 After about ten years of reign, Tiridates was driven 
 from his throne by Persians, and once more became a 
 wanderer; but two years later he was reinstated by the 
 Eomans, and finished his life on the throne. In grat- 
 itude for this second restoration, he had daily offerings 
 made to the heathen gods all over his kingdom; and 
 on being told that the Christians refused to comply, 
 ordered all recusants to be tortured, and their prop- 
 erty confiscated. 
 
 About this time Diocletian determined to find and 
 marry the handsomest woman in his empire, and sent 
 officers all over in search of noted beauties. One 
 party, hearing that a nun named Ripsime was very 
 beautiful, entered her convent by force, had a portrait 
 m.ade of her, and carried it to the emperor. Diocle- 
 tian was enchanted with it, and ordered preparations 
 made for the nuptials; but the abbess, Kayane, to 
 save the nun from sin, and the community from dan- 
 ger, broke up the convent, and the inmates with sev- 
 
74 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 eral priests — seventy in all — went to the East, and 
 scattered themselves in different localities. Ripsime 
 and Kayane, with thirty-five companions, reached Ar- 
 dashad in Armenia, and took refuge in a building 
 among the vineyards, where wine vats were stored. 
 Diocletian had search made for his flown bird, and, 
 hearing that her company had gone to Armenia, com- 
 manded Tiridates to send her back to him unless he 
 wished to keep her for his own wife. Tiridates had 
 her hunted out, and the officers bringing a report of 
 her extraordinary beauty, so great that people flocked 
 to admire her, he ordered her brought to him, intend- 
 ing to marry her. Kayane exhorted her not to deny 
 Christ for the sake of earthly honors, and she refused 
 to go. She was carried by force, however, and the 
 king undertook to gain a husband's rights at once; but 
 the virgin, strengthened by divine power, resisted him 
 successfully. Tiridates then had the Abbess Kayane 
 brought to him to overcome the girPs scruples; but 
 instead, she once more exhorted Ripsime to keep her- 
 self pure in spite of all offered grandeur. The king 
 once more endeavored to deflower the maiden, and 
 was once more beaten ; and Ripsime, opening the doors 
 and passing out through the astonished guards, walked 
 out of the city, to her companions in the vineyard, 
 went to a high place, and knelt down in prayer. The 
 incensed Tiridates sent a body of guards to put her to 
 death by the most dreadful tortures, which was done, 
 and her body cut into small pieces. Her companions 
 gathered to bury her remains, and were at once 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 75 
 
 biitchered by the soldiery, as well as a sick one, who 
 had stayed behind in the wine press. The bodies of 
 the thirty-four martyrs were thrown into the fields as 
 food for the beasts of prey. The next day Tiridates 
 had Kayane and two other companions put to death. 
 These events occurred on the 5th and 6th of October, 
 301. 
 
 Shortly after, God visited the king and many of 
 his household with a dreadful disease for his perse- 
 cution of the saints. They ran around like mad peo- 
 ple or demoniacs. While they were in this state, the 
 king's virgin sister Chosrovitukht had a divine revela- 
 tion that she should go to Ardashad and release Gre- 
 gory from the pit, and he would heal them all. As he 
 had been thrown there fourteen years ago, and was 
 believed to be long dead, no attention was paid to it; 
 but the next day it was repeated five times with 
 threats, and a chief named Oda was sent, who brought 
 him back alive, to their great amazement and joy. 
 They prostrated themselves before him and asked for- 
 giveness, but he told them to worship only their Cre- 
 ator. Then he demanded to be shown the bodies of 
 the holy martyrs lately just slain for belief in Christ; 
 they were found after nine days and nights untouched, 
 and he gathered them up and put them into the wine 
 press, where he also established himself. First he 
 ordered the king and all the people to fast five days, 
 and commended them to the mercy of God ; and after 
 that for sixty consecutive days he preached the word 
 of God, instructing them in all the mysteries of the 
 
76 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Christian religion. On the sixty-sixth day they again 
 besought him to heal them, but first he made them 
 build three chapels for the relics of the martyrs, each 
 in a separate coffin, wall in the place where he had 
 seen a vision of the Son of God coming down from 
 heaven, and erect a crucifix before which the people 
 should prostrate themselves. Finally, seeing that 
 they all believed in the true God, St. Gregory bade 
 them kneel down and pray to Him for healing; he 
 himself prayed for them at the same time, and a mira- 
 culous cure was at once effected on all the sufferers. 
 
 This done, Gregory and Tiridates set about ex- 
 terminating idolatry; they smashed the idols and de- 
 molished the temples, the new converts joyfully as- 
 sisting them. The work of conversion went on rapidly, 
 under the wonderful preaching of the Saint, and the 
 zeal of the king; all the people converted were baptized 
 by immersion. In eight years the majority of the 
 Armenian nation, many millions in number, had be- 
 come Christians. That religion was made the State 
 creed of Armenia in 310, while the Council of Mce, 
 which did the same work for Rome, was not held till 
 325. 
 
 Gregory deserves every credit for this magnificent 
 work ; but I cannot help wishing he had been less zeal- 
 ous in destroying the pagan literature, which is a very 
 great loss to the world. However, Christianity is 
 worth it, if we could not have it at a less price. 
 
 Schools, as well as churches and benevolent in- 
 stitutions, were organized in great numbers under 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 77 
 
 ChristiaiL auspices during the next two or three cen- 
 turies, and a brilliant band of scholars and preachers 
 went out from them, the equals of any in their age, 
 and perhaps in any age. I will give sketches of some 
 of the principal figures, but first let me briefly tell the 
 history of Armenia during that period. 
 
 The rivalry between Rome and Persia grew fiercer 
 than ever with the introduction of Christianity, for 
 now religious hate was added to political ambition; 
 and on the side of Persia the Armenian difiiculties 
 were doubled, for a considerable part of the Armenians 
 were still Zoroastrians, and sympathized with the Per- 
 sians against their own government, while many of 
 the Persians had become Christian, and opposed their 
 pagan rulers. Thus the Persians felt that they had a 
 civil war on their hands as well as foreign wars, and 
 persecuted their Christians horribly. On the other 
 hand, they had the help of the pagan part of the Ar- 
 menians in invading or controlling that state; still 
 again, the Armenian Christians now favored the Ro- 
 mans much more strongly than they had before, be- 
 cause Rome was now Christian ; while on top of all were 
 the great barons, almost independent of the nominal 
 kings, and who favored neither party but wanted their 
 feudal independence. Yet the Roman control of the 
 kingship, for what it was worth, lasted without a break 
 for over half a century after the victory of Christian- 
 ity, and over three-quarters of a century from the ac- 
 cession of Tiridates; w^hich was due largely to the 
 great ability of the Roman emperors Diocletian and 
 
78 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Constantine, and the excellent administration and mil- 
 itary organization tliey left, whicli saved the eastern 
 provinces from Persia for over a quarter of a century 
 after Constantine^s death. Shahpur II, of Persia, 
 won many victories, but he could not hold even the 
 places he captured, and he gained no territory till the 
 death of '^ Julian the Apostate " in his Persian cam- 
 paign of 363. His weak and frightened successor 
 Jovian surrendered a great section of the Eastern Ro- 
 man territory, and still more disgracefully agreed that 
 the Romans should not help their ally Arshag (Ar- 
 saces), king of Armenia, against Shahpur. Armenia 
 was at once invaded, but she felt her national existence 
 at stake, and fought with desperation. Though Shah- 
 pur had the help of two apostate Armenian princes, 
 Merujan and Vahan, and other native traitors, who 
 ravaged the country and fought their king because he 
 was a Christian, Arshag held out four years, aided by 
 his heroic though unprincipled wife Parantzem, and 
 his able chief commander Yashag. Yagharshabad, 
 Ardashad, Ervandshad, and many other cities were 
 taken and destroyed ; finally Arshag and Yashag were 
 captured. Arshag's eyes were put out, and he was 
 thrown into a Persian dungeon in Ecbatana; Yashag 
 was flayed alive, and his skin stuffed and set near the 
 king. Queen Parantzem still refused to surrender, 
 and with 11,000 soldiers and 6,000 fugitive women held 
 the fortress of Ardis fourteen months, till nearly all of 
 them were dead from hunger or disease; then she 
 opened the gates herself. Instead of honoring her, 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 79 
 
 Shahpur, who was a worthy predecessor of the Turks, 
 had her violated on a public platform by his soldiers, 
 and then impaled (368). Meantime, her and Ashag's 
 son, Bab (Papa), had escaped to Constantinople and 
 afcked the help of the co-Emperor Valens. That em- 
 peror hated to break the treaty, and involve Rome in 
 a new eastern war; but he could not suffer Persia to 
 be strengthened by the possession of all Armenia, and 
 the Roman statesmen had determined to end the long 
 struggle over Armenia by dividing it between Persia 
 and themselves. Bab was secretly helped by the Ro- 
 mans; he kept up a guerrilla warfare in the mountains, 
 and a large part of the Armenian people were pre- 
 pared to welcome him back to his rightful throne. 
 The Romans tried to keep within the letter of their 
 treaty by not letting him assume the title of king. 
 The Persians considered his support by Greek troops 
 a breach of the treaty, none the less, and Yalens al- 
 ternately aided and disavowed him. The matter was 
 not mended by the worthless character of Bab himself, 
 who murdered his best friends on the least suspicion, 
 and had the incredible baseness to hold a secret cor- 
 respondence with Shahpur, the worse than murderer of 
 his parents. Finally the Romans, convinced that he 
 must be under their watch if they were to have any 
 security of him, tolled him down to Cilicia, and pre- 
 vented him from returning by guards of soldiers. He 
 made his escape, and professed his allegiance to the 
 Romans as before; but Yalens resolved to be rid of 
 
80 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 liim, and had him murdered by Count Trajan, the 
 Roman commander in the East. 
 
 Meantime a powerful Roman army under Count 
 Trajan, and the chief Persian host, had actually 
 camped opposite each other on the borders of Armenia 
 (371) ; but neither side wanted a general war just then, 
 — Rome must have her hands free for the Goths, and 
 Persia hers for the Mongols. Finally, in 379, Shah- 
 pur died, and there was an instant and entire change in 
 Persian policy toward Rome, and even toward Chris- 
 tianity for a while. His brother and successor, Ar- 
 dashir, was an old man, and reigned but four years; 
 his successor, Shahpur III, at once sent embassies to 
 Rome, and made a treaty of peace (384). Finally, 
 on the succession of Bahram IV (Kirman Shah), in 
 390, that monarch arranged a treaty of partition with 
 Theodosius, the Roman emperor, by which Armenia 
 ceased to exist. The western portion became a Ro- 
 man province ; the then reigning sovereign, Arshag lY, 
 was made governor to keep the people contented. The 
 eastern, and much the larger section, was annexed to 
 Persia, under the name of Persarmenia; and to please 
 the people, an Arsacid, Chosroes TV, was made gov- 
 ernor, and the dynasty was continued in its rule over 
 the Armenians till after the great Perso-Roman war of 
 421-2, and the persecution of Christians by Persia, 
 which was the pretext of it. The persecution and the 
 war led to a movement for Armenian independence; 
 after it was over, Bahram Y of Persia (Gor, the Wild 
 Ass, " the mighty hunter '') put a new vassal, Ar- 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 81 
 
 dashes IV, into the governorship ; but the great Ar- 
 menian barons would not give up the struggle, and 
 this last of the Arshagoonian dynasty was removed in 
 428 and Persian governors substituted. 
 
 Thus ended the rule of the line of Arshag. It was 
 a mighty race, and swarms with brilliant names; but in 
 Persia it was justly displaced by one of better public 
 policy, and in Armenia the position of the country 
 was fatal to it. 
 
 THE INTERREGNUM. 
 Prominent Men; Literature; The Church and the Clergy. 
 
 From the time of the partition to the succession 
 of the Pakradoonian dynasty there was not in name 
 an Armenian kingdom; but it must not be supposed 
 that there was not an Armenian nation. E^o matter 
 how its neighbor nations changed, that country was 
 always called Armenia, and the people held to their 
 Armenian ways and feelings. The national feeling 
 was as strong as before, and above all the feeling of 
 church unity was very intense. 'No one will ever 
 understand Armenian history, or indeed any Oriental 
 history at all, w^ho does not realize that religious ques- 
 tions come first, and political questions second. The 
 Armenian church was, it is true, a Christian church; 
 but it was the Armenian Christian church, not the 
 Greek church, and the Syrian and African churches 
 had their separate creeds and preferences, and the 
 Greek church, which was the official church of the 
 
 Greek Empire, was always trying to root out their 
 6 
 
82 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 " heresies '^ and make them Greek. That was one rea- 
 son why the Mohammedans conquered those countries 
 so easily. The Africans would rather be ruled by 
 the Mohammedans than by the Greek church, the 
 Syrians were angry because the Greek church wanted 
 to take away their own church and give them the 
 Greek. But the Armenians would not take either 
 the Greek or the Mohammedan or the Zoroastrian; 
 they wanted their own. So they were persecuted ter- 
 ribly by the Greek Christians and the Persian fire- 
 worshipers alike. Just as before the partition, each 
 country invaded the other's part of Armenia when- 
 ever they got into war; and whichever won, the Ar- 
 menians were the losers. When the Greeks won, they 
 tortured the Armenians; when the Persians won, they 
 tortured the Armenians; later, when the Mohamme- 
 dans won, they also tortured the Armenians. The 
 mediaeval history of Armenia is that of a battle- 
 ground between contending races — Greeks, Per- 
 sians, Scythians, Arabs, Seljuk Turks, Ottoman Turks, 
 Mongols, and so on. Millions of its people were slain; 
 millions died of famine and disease; millions of its 
 women were forced to embrace Mohammedanism and 
 become the wives and mothers of Mohammedans, — 
 half the blood of those who are called Turks at this 
 day is Armenian ; millions of its boys were forced into 
 the Turkish service, so that many of the best-known 
 names in Turkish history, and in the Turkey of to- 
 day, are Armenian names. Yet through all these ca- 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 83 
 
 lamities and decimations Armenia has kept its national 
 life and national religion. 
 
 From 390 to 640 the history of both sections of 
 Armenia is little more than an account of religious 
 persecutions and their results; the persecutors on the 
 one side were Christians, and on the other side Zoroas- 
 trians, but the results to the Armenians were much 
 the same. The Persian atrocities, however, were on 
 the larger scale, and the outcome was a chronic state 
 of revolt, which will be alluded to in the sketch of 
 Vartan the defender. But the rise of the Saracen 
 powxr changed Armenia's greatest foe from the Per- 
 sian to the Arab, from the fire-worshipers to the Mo- 
 hammedans. Persia was invaded by the forces of 
 the caliph Omar in 634, and about 640-2 the decisive 
 battle of ^ehavend annihilated the last great Persian 
 army, though scattered places held out much longer. 
 The Armenian highlands at once resumed their inde- 
 pendence, and their chiefs, with those of the western 
 section belonging to the Byzantine Empire, fought for 
 their own hand in lack of a true national chief whom 
 all could look up to, but allied themselves mainly with 
 the Greek power against the barbarians; and for two 
 entire centuries, and more, Armenia was a furious 
 and bloody battle-ground between Greeks and Sar- 
 acens, while internally in a state of feudal anarchy. 
 Then a prince of the family of Pakrad or Bagrat (well- 
 known to students of the last century's history in the 
 form of Bagration), of Jewish descent, as has already 
 been mentioned, which had obtained power over the 
 
84 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 central and northern parts of Armenia, was recognized 
 by the caliph as an independent monarch; and thus 
 founded the Pakradoonian dynasty, which lasted till 
 Armenia's independence was once more extinguished 
 by the Byzantine Empire, — a crime almost immedi- 
 ately punished by the overwhelming of Asia Minor by 
 the Seljuk Turks. 
 
 PROMINENT MEN OF THE PERIOD. 
 NiERSEs The Great. 
 
 This was the great creator of Armenian scholar- 
 ship. He was a descendant of St. Gregory; studied 
 in the Greek schools of Caesarea during boyhood; later 
 in those of Constantinople, where he became famous 
 for learning, married a Greek princess of a distin- 
 guished house, and on his return to Armenia was made 
 pontiff. (All the clergy were married then, as the 
 Greek priests are now.) He founded over 2,000 
 schools, and benevolent institutions, as well as great 
 numbers of churches, was a powerful and persuasive 
 preacher, and a considerable writer, part of the Church 
 history being his. From these schools went forth a 
 very brilliant band of scholars, preachers and orators, 
 the equals of any in the world. 
 
 It was during his pontificate that the affairs of 
 Arshag and Bab took place, and he was intimately con- 
 nected with them till his death at the hands of the lat- 
 ter. Previous to the desertion of Armenia by the 
 Romans in 363, they had quarreled with Arshag, and 
 sent an army to punish him; but on ^N^ierses' interces- 
 sion with Yalens it was recalled, and the Saint obtained 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 85 
 
 high favor with the emperor. Arshag's conduct, how- 
 ever, grew too bad for endurance; he had his father 
 and a relative named Kuenel (or Gnel) killed, and mar- 
 ried Kuenel's wife, Parantzem (who afterwards met 
 such a horrible fate), though his own wife, Olympias, 
 was still alive. Nierses, finding admonition of no 
 avail, quitted Yagharshabad and went into a convent. 
 But Arshag, getting into fresh difficulties with the 
 emperor and his own rebellious vassals, besought the 
 saint to assist him once more, and once more Kierses 
 complied. He first pacified the turbulent nobility; 
 then interceded with the Roman commander to such 
 effect that the general withdrew his army and went 
 to Constantinople to justify himself to the emperor, 
 taking a letter to him from Arshag, and hostages for 
 the latter's loyalty, and also inducing ^ierses to ac- 
 company him. But Yalens was enraged at the with- 
 drawal, would neither read the letter nor see the saint, 
 and ordered the hostages killed and Merses banished. 
 The former sentence was revoked on the general's in- 
 tercession, but Merses was shipped for his place of 
 exile; on the way a storm wrecked the vessel on a 
 desert island, but he and the crew were saved. It was 
 winter, and they could find no food but the roots of 
 trees, but in a short time the sea miraculously cast 
 abundance of fish on shore, and for eight months they 
 never suffered for sustenance. At the end of that time 
 the saint was set free. 
 
 After the restoration of Bab to the land, though 
 not the acknowledged throne of his fathers, Nierses 
 
86 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 convened an assembly of Armenian princes and eccle- 
 siastical heads, with the king, and swore them all to 
 mutual concord and good behavior, to unite the land 
 against the Persians; but Bab, like so many Eastern 
 potentates and indeed his father, cared for nothing but 
 to indulge his ow^n passions, and would have sold his 
 country to Shahpur if he could have got his price. 
 E^ierses in vain tried to turn him from his evil ways; 
 Bab merely hated him for it, and finally had him pois- 
 oned, in the village of Khakh in the province of Eghue- 
 ghiatz. Merses had been pontiff eight years, but they 
 were crowded with labors of immense variety and use- 
 fulness. He left one son (Isaac), who eventually be- 
 came pontiff also. 
 
 Sahag and Mesrob. 
 
 Isaac was educated ait Constantinople like his 
 father, and had at first no thought of being a great 
 churchman, but only of leading the life of a noble. 
 He was always, however, of a very pure and lofty char- 
 acter, a marked contrast to the proud and dissolute no- 
 bility around him; and after the early death of his 
 wife, devoted himself to religious seclusion, into which 
 he was followed by sixty disciples. In 389, a few 
 years after his father's death, he was called out to fill 
 the pontificate, once more vacant. This was the year 
 before the partition of Armenia; but even after that, 
 though the country was divided, the church was not. 
 The Armenian Church was still one, with a single 
 head; but the appointment of that head was of suoh 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 87 
 
 immense political importance that, as the king had be- 
 fore claimed the deciding voice in it, so now each power 
 insisted on being satisfied, — no easy matter. Some of 
 the nobles who opposed Chosroes of Persarmenia 
 now complained to the king of Persia that the ap- 
 pointment of the new pontiff had been made without 
 his consent, in order to foment a rebellion, and make 
 Armenia independent again; and the king deposed" 
 Isaac. Shortly after, however, a new king reinstated 
 him; and a new vassal king being put in Chosroes' 
 place, and the country more quiet, St. Isaac began to 
 repair the churches, which had fallen into decay, — 
 entirely rebuilding that of St. Pipsime, destroyed by 
 Shahpur, in the course of which he discovered St. 
 Gregory's urn sealed with his cross-engraven signet. 
 
 About this time St. Mesrob began to be famous for 
 sanctity. He was a scholar well versed in Greek, 
 Syrian, and Persian, as well as his native tongue ; had 
 been secretary to St. Merses, and after his death re- 
 mained at court under the patronage of a prince 
 named Aravan, where he became chancellor. Finally 
 he became wearied of earthly glory and court corrup- 
 tions, and entered a convent, whither many disciples 
 were attracted by his learning and sanctity. Hearing 
 of St. Isaac's beneficent deeds, however, he left the 
 convent and attached himself to him; and under his 
 authority preached and taught in all parts of the pro- 
 vince. We are told that by the aid of the chief of 
 Koghten he extirpated a diabolic heathen sect in that 
 province. But his fame is chiefly as having begun 
 
88 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 with Isaac the Golden Age of Armenian literature; I 
 shall speak of this a little later. 
 
 Barouyr or Broyerios. 
 
 We must not judge the ability and reputation of 
 men in their own ages solely by the familiarity of 
 their names to us; those that have come down to 
 us are a mere handful, and not by any means always 
 the greatest of their time. Much depends on chance 
 — the preservation of certain works, and the loss 
 of others, or certain men happening to do something 
 dramatic. Great orators are especially likely to be 
 forgotten; they leave no written works of their own, 
 and not being in political life, the common histories 
 do not mention them. The name of Barouyr is wholly 
 unknown to this age; but we have the testimony of a 
 contemporary writer, Eunapius of Sardis, — not a 
 countryman of his, and therefore free from all suspi- 
 cion of patriotic brag, and most unlikely to make out 
 an Armenian greater than he was, — that he was the 
 most wonderful orator of his time, famous all over the 
 Roman world, and greatly admired even by the em- 
 perors. He was one of those men to whom all languages 
 seem alike to come by nature, and his oratory was as 
 easy and as perfect in one as in the other; in Latin or 
 Greek as in his national Armenian. The only com- 
 parison I can give in modern times is Louis Kossuth. 
 That Barouyr has not the fame of Cicero or Demosthe- 
 nes, Kossuth or Gladstone, is probably because under 
 the circumstances of the time he could not engage in 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 89 
 
 political life; military service or liigh birth were about 
 the only avenues to that. I will quote in substance 
 what Eunapius says of this brilliant orator, whom he 
 probably knew all about, as our boys know Gladstone, 
 — for he was born in 347, and Barouyr was certainly 
 alive in the time of the Emperor Julian, who came to 
 the throne in 361: — 
 
 Barouyr lived to be ninety, and was beautiful 
 even in old age, having the vigor of youth in his 
 looks. He was eight feet high. When a boy he left 
 Armenia and went to Antioch, the first seat of the 
 Christians, and entered the school of oratory under the 
 celebrated Albianos, where he shortly became the fore- 
 most pupil. Thence he went to Athens and studied 
 under Julian, the greatest of the teachers of oratory 
 there, — supporting himself by working meantime, 
 as he was very poor ; in no long time he was recognized 
 as the leading orator of Athens, and taught the art to 
 the Athenians. The other teachers were so angry 
 that they bribed the governor to banish him; but on 
 the governor's removal some time after, he was per- 
 mitted to return. The new governor instituted an 
 oratorical competition ; whoever could deliver the best 
 extempore oration on a subject to be given out on the 
 spot, should receive great honors. Barouyr took part 
 on condition that the auditors should take careful notes, 
 and should not cheer ; but they were so fascinated that 
 they broke both conditions, listening in rapture and 
 applauding repeatedly. The governor offered him his 
 chair, and honored him as the greatest orator in Athens. 
 
90 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Later, the Emperor Constans was so struck witli his 
 wisdom and oratorical power that he called him first 
 to Gaul and then to Rome, where he delivered his 
 greatest orations, and the Romans erected a bronze 
 monument in his honor, inscribed " Regina Rerum 
 Romae, Regi Eloquentiae " (Rome Queen of Affairs, 
 to the King of Eloquence). From Rome he returned 
 to Athens, and taught there many years with great 
 repute, up to the time of the Emperor Julian, who 
 honored him, and spoke as follows of him : " Barouyr 
 was a flowing river of oratory, and in power and per- 
 suasiveness of speech was like Pericles.'' And I must 
 add that with all this he was a thorough Christian man, 
 — not a priest, but a great Christian layman and 
 teacher. 
 
 Vartan, Defender of the Faith. 
 
 Yartan Hamigonian is the most esteemed and be- 
 loved name in Armenian history. Tiridates founded 
 the Christian kingdom; but when the religion was in 
 danger of extermination throughout Persian Armenia 
 at the hands of the fire-worshipers, Yartan saved it, 
 and died for it, a faithful servant of God and his Sav- 
 iour. It was said of him that he was an honest, mod- 
 est, wise, brave, true, pure, childlike, and Christ- 
 like Christian commander, a great soldier of the Cross. 
 He was a lamb in nature, but when he came to defend 
 his religion he was a lion. As a little boy he was so 
 full of grace that the Pontiff Sahag adopted him as his 
 son; and through this companionship of the aged ec- 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 91 
 
 clesiastic and the religious boy, tlie latter developed 
 into a great spiritual light. In 421 he went to Con- 
 stantinople with St. Mesrob, and was much loved and 
 esteemed by the emperor (Theodosius II) and the 
 court; then to Persia, where the king honored him 
 and gave him the title of prince. 
 
 In 439 Yazdegerd II of Persia succeeded his fa- 
 ther, Bahram Y, the destroyer of the Arsacid dynasty, 
 and began a furious persecution of both Jews and 
 Christians, which lasted a dozen years, and ended in 
 a complete victory for religious freedom. The king, 
 like James I of England, fancied himself a great the- 
 ologian, and could always be victorious in a debate by 
 killing his opponent. One specimen will suffice. He 
 called a convocation of Armenian priests and noble- 
 men, and commanded them to embrace fire-worship on 
 pain of death. " Your Christ cannot save you,'' said 
 he, " for He is crucified and dead.'' " Oh my gracious 
 king," replied a young nobleman, " why did you not 
 read further about Christ ? He was indeed crucified, 
 but rose again, ascended to Heaven, and is living now 
 and our Saviour." The king in a rage had his head 
 struck off. 
 
 Finally in 450 the people of Persian Armenia rose 
 in revolt, and determined to fight for their religion. 
 Yartan took command of them, and showed himself the 
 ablest commander of his time. For a year he held at 
 bay the overwhelming forces of the Persian Empire, 
 and was victorious in every battle, even to the last, — 
 a striking parallel to Judas Maccabaeus in historical 
 
92 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 position, as well as military ability. Finally the forces 
 were arrayed for battle on the banks of the Dugh- 
 mood river, in the plains of Avarayr, near the present 
 city of Van. Yartan had 66,000 men, the Persians 
 several times as many. Yartan prayed to God for 
 help, and to Christ for his own salvation ; then he made 
 a speech to his soldiers, in substance as follows: — 
 '* Soldiers, as Christians we are averse from fighting; 
 but to defend the Christian religion and our own free- 
 dom we have to fight. Surely our lives are not as val- 
 uable as Christ's, and if he was willing to die on 
 the cross for us, we ought to be willing to die in battle 
 for him." Then, with his troops, he crossed the river, 
 fell on the enemy's center, and scattered the huge army 
 in rout, killing 3,544 men besides nine great princes, 
 and losing 1,036 of his own; but alas ! one of these was 
 himself, dying from a mortal wound not long after. 
 ^Nevertheless, he had won the victory he was striving 
 for. Yazdegerd saw it was impossible to conquer the 
 Armenians in a war for religion, and granted entire 
 liberty to the Christians to believe and preach as they 
 pleased. 
 
 ARMENIAN LITERATURE. 
 Fifth Century. 
 
 The Armenian schools and universities and their 
 outpour of great scholars and writers have already 
 been spoken of, but of course Armenian youths, eager 
 for the best of the world's learning, did not confine 
 themselves to their own country; they studied in Con- 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 93 
 
 stantinople, Athens, Antioch, Alexandria, and wher- 
 ever great teachers were located. All were zealous 
 Christians, and the books they have left behind were 
 Christian literature, not works of mere enjoyment. A 
 very rich and valuable literature it is, too, in my judg- 
 ment the most so of any single body that exists ; though 
 much of it has perished in the recent destruction of 
 everything Christian the Turks can reach. My 
 readers will not credit my opinion of it, because most 
 of it has never been translated, but that makes it all 
 the more valuable now, it has so much that is new to 
 add to the stores of the world. It is not necessary to 
 give them all, but to point out the chief writers. 
 
 The fifth century is called the Golden Age of Ar- 
 menian literature. First in point of time as well 
 as importance comes the Armenian Bible. The furi- 
 ous opposition of the Church in the Middle Ages to 
 letting the people have the Bible to read in their o^vn 
 tongues seems perfectly ridiculous, when we remem- 
 ber that in the early Christian church every people had 
 it in their own language, and it was thought to be the 
 greatest work for a heathen people that could be done, 
 to translate the Bible for them. It was not thought 
 needful then to keep the word of God in a strange 
 tongue, so that the people could neither read it for 
 themselves nor understand it when it was read to them. 
 
 There w^ere probably some books of popular tales 
 and songs in Armenia before the fifth century, for 
 we are told that there was an Armenian alphabet to 
 write them in as early as the second, but if so they have 
 
94 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 all perished, and the alphabet was doubtless a poor 
 and meager one. Armenian scholars and writers read 
 Greek or Latin books, and occasionally Hebrew or 
 Syriac ones, and wrote in Greek or Latin themselves; 
 if it was necessary to write Armenian, as in letters, 
 they made the Greek, Syriac, or Persian characters, 
 which of course were insufficient to give the Armenian 
 sounds. They would have got along with this, how- 
 ever, if it had not been for the eagerness of Chris- 
 tian enthusiasm which made them wish to give the 
 Bible to Armenia; it was to spread the word of God, 
 not to write books, that they were anxious. St. Mes- 
 rob set to work and invented a very perfect alphabet 
 of thirty-six letters, to which two have been added 
 since. According to one of his disciples, having 
 vainly sought help from the learned, he prayed to God, 
 and received the new alphabet in a vision. This was 
 about 405. He and Sahag the Pontiff at once began 
 to translate the 'New Testament and the Book of Pro- 
 verbs from a poor Greek version, the best they had, 
 with the assistance of two pupils, John of Eghueghi- 
 atz and Joseph of Baghin. This was finished in 406. 
 Many years later (seemingly about the time Persian 
 Armenia was made a satrapy), they undertook the 
 translation of the Old Testament; but as the Persians 
 had destroyed all the Greek MSS., it was necessary to 
 use a Syriac version. The same two assistants aided 
 them; but being sent to the Council of Ephesus in 431, 
 they brought back copies of the Greek Septuagint, and 
 the old translation was at once dropped, and a new one 
 
THE ARI^IENIAN DYNASTIES. 95 
 
 put under way. But all found their knowledge of 
 Greek too imperfect to rely on, and the pupils were 
 sent to Alexandria and Athens to complete their educa- 
 tion; on their return they seem to have brought a new 
 Alexandrian version, and corrections were made from 
 that, and the work completed, most likely about 435. 
 
 The Bible completed, they turned to other labors. 
 The Saints Sahag and Mesrob are said to have written 
 six hundred books themselves, all in Christian theology 
 and instruction; and the pupils from the schools St. 
 Nierses and themselves had founded — the chief of 
 their own were at N^oravank, Ayri, and Vochkhoroz 
 — wrote great numbers besides. The first orig- 
 inal work of Sahag was one on Pastoral Theol- 
 ogy, setting forth that the Church of Christ is the 
 Bride of Christ, and the ministers must therefore be 
 holy, pure, and obedient. He wrote many epistles to 
 kings and emperors, all of whom reverenced and were 
 greatly influenced by him. He wrote a large part of 
 the Armenian Church History, composed many 
 hymns, and translated many commentaries and theo- 
 logical works from the Greek. 
 
 Fortunately during this period the government of 
 Armenia was very good, with the exception of one 
 period of two years or so; even after its partition, for 
 close on forty years it had practically self-government 
 in internal affairs, and for another decade the Chris- 
 tians enjoyed full rights of worship. Bahram IV of 
 Persia (389-399), who helped divide it, was a mon- 
 arch who loved peace above all things, both with for- 
 
96 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 eign countries and his own people ; his successor, Yaz- 
 degerd I (399-420), went even further, employed the 
 Catholicos or Pontiff on embassies to Constantinople, 
 and as mediator with his own brother, and made his 
 son, Shahpur, governor of Persian Armenia, con- 
 tinuing the Arsacid dynasty. He was murdered by 
 his nobles, instigated by the Zoroastrian priests, for 
 being too tolerant to the Christians, and his successor 
 Bahram V, who got the throne by favor of the re- 
 bellious elements, tried to please them by persecuting 
 the Christians ; this involved him in a war with Rome, 
 as I have said, and after a couple of years he made 
 peace and gave toleration again. The turning of Per- 
 sian Armenia into a satrapy in 428 I have already told; 
 but no fresh persecution was undertaken till that of 
 Yazdegerd II, in 439, ending in Yartan's revolt just 
 detailed. Shahpur of Armenia was a prince of great 
 wisdom, generosity, and public spirit; he patronized 
 men of learning, founded schools, made large grants 
 from the treasury for scholarship, and sent scholars to 
 all the great seats of learning to teach and acquire the 
 languages, literature, and history of other nations, 
 after which they wrote and translated hundreds of 
 volumes. Among them were Tavit, Khosrov, Mam- 
 pre, and Zazar; a great historian, Eghishe (Elisaeus), 
 author of the Life of Yartan ; and a great philosopher, 
 Yeznic. These are only a few out of scores worthy 
 of mention. 
 
 Dr. Philip Schaff says : — " In spite of the unfa- 
 vorable state of political and social affairs in Armenia 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 97 
 
 during this epoch, more than six hundred Greek and 
 Syrian works were translated within the first forty 
 years after the translation of the Bible; and as in 
 many cases the original works have perished, while 
 the translations have be@n preserved, the great im- 
 portance of this whole literary activity is apparent. 
 Among works which in this way have come down 
 to us are several books by Philo-Alexandrinus, on 
 Providence, on reason, commentaries, etc. ; the Chron- 
 icle of Eusebius, nearly complete ; the epistles of Igna- 
 tius, translated from a Syrian version; fifteen Homilies 
 by Severianus; the exegetical writings of Ephraim 
 Syrus, previously completely unknown, on the his- 
 torical books of the Old Testament, the synoptical gos- 
 pels, the parables of Jesus, and the fourteen Pauline 
 epistles; the Hexahemeron of Basil the Great; the Cat- 
 echesis of Cyril of Jerusalem; several homilies by 
 Chrysostom, etc. The period, however, was not char- 
 acterized by translations only. Several of the dis- 
 ciples of Mesrob and Sahak left original works. Es- 
 nik wrote four books against heretics, printed at 
 Venice in 1826, and translated into French by Le 
 Yailliant de Florival, Paris, 1853. A biography of 
 Mesrob by Koriun, homilies by Mambres, and various 
 writings by the Philosopher David, have been pub- 
 lished ; and the works of Moses Chorenensis, published 
 in Venice in 1842, and again in 1864, have acquired a 
 wide celebrity ; his history of Armenia has been trans- 
 lated into Latin, French, Italian, and Russian.'' 
 
 Sixth Centuky. 
 The leading authors in this century are Abraham 
 Mamigonian, who wrote on the Council of Ephesus; 
 and Bedross Sounian, who w^rote on the Life of Christ. 
 There are, however, many others of merit. 
 
98 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Seventh Century. 
 
 By far the greatest name in this century, and in- 
 deed the best-known and most important name in Ar- 
 menian literature altogether^ is the writer who calls 
 himself Movses Khorentzi, well known to all his- 
 torical scholars as Moses of Chorene, author of the 
 History of Armenia. For more than a thousand 
 years, up to this century, indeed, this was practically 
 the only source of Armenian history to the world; the 
 other writers were inaccessible. And it is still very 
 valuable, though not in just the way it was once 
 thought to be. It preserves a vast amount of Ar- 
 menian tradition, stories and ballads, and real history, 
 which have perished except for this work; but he 
 seems not to have had the Greek and Latin histories 
 to draw from, and makes a great many mistakes. He 
 gives a life of himself, and says he is writing in the 
 fifth century, and knew Sahag and Mesrob when he 
 was young; but he really lived in the seventh, and 
 wrote history about the year 640. But still he is a 
 great writer, and one of Armenia's literary lights; and 
 we do not need to claim for him anything more than 
 he deserves. 
 
 Besides Movses, the chief authors were Gomidas, 
 
 Yezr, Matossagha, Krikoradour, Hovhannes, Yertanes, 
 
 and Anania. They wrote chiefly religious books; 
 
 but Anania Shiragatzi is the author of a valuable work 
 
 on astronomy. 
 
 Eighth Century. 
 
 The leading authors were: Hovhan Imassdasser, 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 99 
 
 Sdepannoss Sounetzi, and Levont Yeretz. They wrote 
 hymns, books on oratory, etc. 
 
 Ninth Century. 
 
 Zakaria Shabooh, Tooma, Kourken, etc. 
 
 Tenth Century. 
 
 The chief authors were Anania, Khasrov, and 
 Krikor Naregatzi. The latter wrote a prayer book 
 in ninety-five chapters, which one of the missionaries 
 of the American Board thinks the best in the world. 
 He says that only Beecher was able to offer such 
 prayers as Krikor ^N^aregatzi. 
 
 Eleventh Century. 
 
 The leading writers were Hovhannes, Krikor, and 
 Aristagues. In this century some of the best com- 
 mentaries were written on the Bible. 
 
 Twelfth Century. 
 
 Leading authors: l^erses Shinorhali is the fore- 
 most of Armenian poets, and a thoroughly con- 
 verted and consecrated man of God. His hymns 
 were intensely spiritual, and the Armenians still chant 
 them in their churches. They are worthy to be trans- 
 lated into English. Verses Lampronatzi, the greatest 
 scholar ever born in Armenia, was a distinguished 
 commentator on the Old Testament, and wrote many 
 other books. Another is Yeremia. 
 
 Again I quote from the Schaff-Herzog Encyclo- 
 paedia: — "Another flourishing period falls in the 
 twelfth century, during the Eubenian dynasty. 'Ner- 
 
100 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 ses Klagensis and Verses Lainbronensis belong to this 
 period; also Ignatius^ whose commentary to the Gos- 
 pel of St. Luke appeared in Constantinople in 1735 
 and 1824; Sargis Shnorhali, whose commentary on 
 the Catholic Epistles was published in Constantinople 
 in 1743, and again in 1826; Matthew of Edessa, whose 
 history, comprising the period from 952 to 1132, and 
 continued by Gregory the Priest to 1163, contains 
 many interesting notices concerning the Crusaders; 
 Samuel Aniensis, the chronologist; Michael Syrus, 
 whose history has been edited with a Erench transla- 
 tion by Y. Langlois, Paris, 1864; Mekhitar Kosh, of 
 whom a hundred and ninety fables appeared at Venice, 
 1780 and 1812. A most powerful impulse the Ar- 
 menian literature received in the eighteenth century 
 by the foundation of the Mekhitarist monastery in 
 Venice, from whose press the treasures of the Ar- 
 menian literature were spread over Europe, and new 
 works, explaining and completing the old, were added. 
 The Armenian liturgy was published in 1826, the 
 breviary in 1845, the ritual in 1831." 
 
 Thirteenth Century. 
 
 Leading authors : — Krikor Sguevratzi, Kevork 
 Sguevratzi, Mukhitar Anetzi, Vanagan Vartabed, Var- 
 tan Vartabed, etc. They wrote histories, commen- 
 taries, etc. As the Armenian dynasties ended in the 
 fourteenth century, I Avill reserve my notes on the later 
 literature till towards the end of the book. 
 
 The peculiar value of the Armenian literature is 
 not realized as it should be, by European and Ameri- 
 can scholars; the language is well worth learning for 
 what it can give the student, ^ot alone is the original 
 

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THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 101 
 
 work that comes from the first Christian nation spe- 
 cially valuable for its bearing on primitive Chris- 
 tianity, but the Armenian scholars translated great 
 numbers of works from other languages, and these 
 translations are preserved in Armenian monaste- 
 ries when the originals have been irretrievably lost 
 in the wars, and burnings, and devastations of other 
 countries. Six hundred volumes of this old literature 
 are known to exist now, two hundred in Europe, and 
 four hundred in different places in Armenia. 
 
 THE ARMENIAN CHURCH. 
 
 The first thing to remember about this is, that it 
 is an independent and separate body as much as the 
 Greek or the Roman Catholic church, and older than 
 either of them. I often hear such expressions as 
 " the Armenian Catholic Church,'' and many people 
 think it simply a " branch " of the great Eastern or 
 Greek Church. It would be just as sensible to con- 
 sider the Greek a branch of the Armenian Church. 
 Each of them represents a form of church organization 
 and body of doctrine which best satisfied the repre- 
 sentatives of certain races or nations ; the advantage of 
 the Greek was that that race — or at least its speech 
 and thought — happened to be dominant in the Ro- 
 man Empire at the time when Christianity won the 
 battle, and so had the official backing of the em- 
 pire, and was able to outgrow and crush down the 
 others. It was not any truer, any more the real 
 Church of Christ, than the Syrian or African or Ar- 
 
102 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 menian; it was not the earliest, for tlie very first 
 Christian cliiirches sprang from the Jews; it was not 
 even the earhest great national church body, for the 
 Armenian church has that distinction. It had the 
 most soldiers back of it to put down its opponents, that 
 is all. I have already told the story of the foundation 
 of the Armenian church by St. Gregory and Tiridates. 
 That church has its own head — the Catholicos or Pon- 
 tiff, w^ho is no more a subordinate of either the Pope 
 or the Greek Patriarch than the Grand Llama is, or 
 Dr. Parkhurst — and its own self-subsistent being. 
 
 As to the differences between them, in the first 
 place the Armenian is a purely Trinitarian. There 
 is no room for Unitarianism within its lines. When 
 Gregory the Illuminator was preaching his sermons 
 on the hills and plains of Armenia, he laid the founda- 
 tion of the national church in the Trinity. His first 
 sermon was on the Trinity ; his last sermon was on the 
 Trinity. In all his sermons he asserted the Trinity, 
 — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Jesus 
 Christ being a perfect Man and a perfect God; in his 
 person we see God in man and man in God; a perfect 
 Emmanuel, God with us. We see in him that man can 
 be united with God. The only possible way of salva- 
 tion is through Jesus Christ. He is the Saviour of 
 the world and none else, and whosoever believeth in 
 Him shall be saved. This is the belief and the only be- 
 lief of the Armenian Church. Its members repeat 
 the Apostolic Creed and the Lord's Prayer every day 
 in their churches. I say every day because Armen- 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 103 
 
 ians go to church every day, — twice, morning and 
 evening, and three times on Sunday. 
 
 Secondly, the Armenian has never been a per- 
 secuting church, and every other one of the great 
 Christian churches has been. The Armenian church, 
 as befits the first and most Christ-like of all the bodies 
 that professed Christ before Luther's time, has always 
 been the broadest, the most inclusive, the most un- 
 technical of churches. It fellowships with all other 
 churches. It demands only that men shall profess 
 and believe in Christ, and live Christian lives ; not that 
 one shall belong to its own church body. Its canons 
 are conversion and regeneration, purity, holiness, being 
 born again from the Holy Spirit and becoming Christ- 
 like. It holds that Christianity is brotherhood 
 through Jesus Christ, and gives no warrant for op- 
 pression or persecution, curses or anathemas. I need 
 hardly say that it is alone in this of the older churches. 
 The others hold that no one can be saved outside of 
 their own bodies; hence they fulminate anathemas 
 against all others, and have the anathemas read in 
 their churches, and they persecute others to compel 
 them to join themselves, or rid the world of a possible 
 danger that their own members may be tolled outside. 
 The Greek Church, where it has full power, will not 
 even allow people of other creeds to come into its coun- 
 try; for example, in Croatia a Protestant is not allowed 
 to live there at all, and the people said in the Hungar- 
 ian Diet that " intolerance was the most precious of 
 their rights." The Russian Greek Church will not 
 
104 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 permit a Protestant missionary in Russia. Where tlie 
 Roman Catholic power is complete, it is just as intoler- 
 ant. The Armenian church has been repeatedly per- 
 secuted by both, and has always protested against the 
 principle of it, as well as against the pretensions of 
 the Popes to universal sway. It is fairly entitled to be 
 called the first Protestant Church. 
 
 That the Armenian contention is for freedom of 
 will, freedom of conscience, freedom of worship, and 
 political freedom, is the cause of their being hated 
 both by the Mohammedans and by their so-called Chris- 
 tian neighbors; but it ought to be also a reason why 
 Americans, who believe in these things themselves, 
 should sympathize with us. If the Armenians would 
 accept Mohammedanism, would the Turks persecute 
 them ? ISTo. If they would accept Roman Catholic- 
 ism would the Turks persecute them ? 'No, for the 
 Catholic states would not permit it. If they would 
 accept the Greek Church, would the Turks persecute 
 them ? 1^0, for Russia would not permit it. But as 
 they are an independent church the others are in- 
 terested in persecuting them, and nobody is interested 
 in defending them. If there is any help to come to 
 them it will not be from the old churches of Europe, 
 but from Protestant Anglo-Saxons helping their spirit- 
 ual brethren, the Anglo-Saxons of the East; and it 
 will be found, when the great battle comes, that the 
 Slavonic, Greek, and Catholic churches will be on the 
 side of the Mohammedans against the Armenian Chris- 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 105 
 
 tiaiis. But that battle will come, and tlie victory will 
 be on tlae side of freedom and righteousness. 
 
 As to theological questions, the Armenian Church 
 fathers did not pay much attention to them. E"ot be- 
 cause they were not able, but because they were too 
 able, and very far-sighted. They knew well that such 
 questions can never be solved, no matter how many 
 centuries pass away, no matter how great scholars 
 the w^orld produces; therefore they would not enter 
 into the debate. And so every Armenian scholar has 
 his own theology. I confess that the Armenian 
 Church has not a theology, or an especial official doc- 
 trine; and this is a very fortunate thing for the Ar- 
 menians. They care more for righteousness of life 
 than for particular beliefs about the way of getting 
 it. When there was a great controversy in the Coun- 
 cil of Chalcedon, 451 A. D., about the nature of Christ, 
 Armenians did not care about it. Some of the great 
 theologians said Christ had two natures; some said he 
 had only one nature; the Armenian bishops would 
 not give any opinion. They believe in Christ as their 
 Saviour, that is the essential thing; but whether He 
 has two natures or one nature is not essential. Then 
 came the controversy about the Holy Spirit. Whence 
 does the Holy Spirit proceed ? Some say from the 
 Father and the Son, some simply from the Father. 
 When the question came before the Armenian bishops 
 they replied that they did not care whence He pro- 
 ceeds. They know that they need the Holy Spirit 
 for guidance in spiritual life, for regeneration; they 
 
106 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 know that the Holy Spirit is one of the persons in the 
 Trinity; and that is enough for them. 
 
 N^ow I would ask, do the theologians of the nine- 
 teenth century agree on such questions, or any other 
 theological question ? Are the theologians of the 
 coming centuries going to agree on them ? I leave 
 this to the scholars of Europe and America. I sim- 
 ply state that I studied in three different theological 
 seminaries in America; first in Oberlin, in 1880; sec- 
 ond in Union Theological Seminary, New York, in 
 1881; and finally I was graduated from the Chicago 
 Theological Seminary. But I never saw a theologian 
 who could agree with any other, and have no hope 
 ever to see any such. President Fairchild of Oberlin 
 differed from Professor Shedd of J^ew York, and Pro- 
 fessor Boardman of Chicago did not agree with either 
 of them; and I never agreed with any of them, and as 
 an Armenian I have my own theology. So every 
 reader of this book will see that the Armenian scholars 
 had the best judgment, far-sightedness, and common 
 sense of those in any or all the communions. In- 
 stead of theological controversies, they preached the 
 gospel and reached the masses, for the Kingdom of 
 Christ. 
 
 THE ARMENIAN CLERGY. 
 
 The Armenian clergy are divided into three 
 classes: the pastor, the preacher, and the presiding 
 bishop. The pastor is called Yeretz, the preacher is 
 called Yartabed, and the presiding bishop is called 
 Yebisgobos (Episcopus). The presiding bishop or- 
 
- THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 107 
 
 dains the preacher and the teacher. The Armenians 
 believe in apostolic succession, and they believe in 
 immersion. Baptism can be administered both to 
 grown people and to children, if they are the children 
 of members of the church; but always by immersion, 
 and in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost. If you unite the present Episcopal 
 church with the Baptist, you will make an Armenian 
 church. All the clergy of the Armenian church, 
 bishops, preachers, and teachers, were married in 
 the early centuries. Gregory the Illuminator, the 
 first bishop of Armenia, was married. His sons were 
 bishops, and were married. There was no church law 
 whatever against marriage of the clergy. At present 
 the bishop and the preacher, or the Yebisgobos and the 
 Yartabed, cannot marry, but the pastor or Yeretz 
 must be married. 'No Armenian pastor can be or- 
 dained if he is not married. 
 
 Of course I am not writing here an Armenian 
 church history; the main object in ^\T:"iting this book 
 is to inform the American public about the causes of 
 the atrocities, and the atrocities themselves. There- 
 fore I consider the above information about the Ar- 
 menian church enough; but I will add that the Ar- 
 menian church until the twelfth century was as sim- 
 ple in ceremonial as any American Protestant church 
 is to-day. But when their kingdom was coming to an 
 end, and they were in a life-and-death struggle with 
 the Mohammedan powers, Popes Innocent, Benedict, 
 and others promised to help them if they would ac- 
 
108 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 cept some of the Roman doctrines and ritual; and 
 since that time — the twelfth century — there has 
 been more or less similarity in the ceremonial of the 
 two churches. But Armenians have never believed in 
 the Pope, and now they are getting rid of the Roman 
 ritual also, as it is foreign to them. 
 
 Before I finish this subject, I must give a little 
 information about the Armenian Patriarch in Con- 
 stantinople, and the Armenian Catholicos of Etch- 
 miazin. There are many people in this country who 
 do not know the difference between the Patriarch and 
 the Catholicos. The difference between them is as fol- 
 lows: The Patriarch at Constantinople has nothing 
 to do with religion, though he is a bishop. As a per- 
 sonal bishop, he goes to the church, and occasionally 
 preaches and leads the pastors, but his duty is political. 
 He is the political head of the Armenians in Con- 
 stantinople, and responsible to the Sultan for the Ar- 
 menian nation who live in Turkey. The Armenians 
 are not anxious to have such a political head; it is sim- 
 ply the wish of the Sultan, or it has been the wishes of 
 the Sultans in centuries gone by. The present Patri- 
 arch, Right Rev. Bishop Izmirlian, is a very learned, 
 experienced, and eloquent bishop. He is very popu- 
 lar; the whole Armenian nation love and esteem him; 
 but the Sultan hates him, because he is brave, honest, 
 and true. The Sultan ordered him to send out false 
 reports, alleging that the Armenians were not being 
 massacred, but were safe and prospering under Abdul 
 Hamid's reign; but the Patriarch refused to issue any 
 
THE ARMENIAN PATRIARCH. 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 109 
 
 such documents while in fact the Armenians were 
 being plundered, tortured, outraged, and killed. The 
 Patriarch's life is consequently in great danger, but the 
 Patriarch says that if it is necessary to sacrifice his life 
 for his beloved nation, he is ready to die. 
 
 The Armenian Catholicos is the spiritual head of 
 the Armenian church; he has nothing to do with 
 politics. He is considered to be fallible, and he is 
 elected both by bishops and laymen; and if the na- 
 tion is not satisfied with him, they may remove him 
 and elect another. He is a presiding bishop. He 
 lives at Etchmiazin (the former Yagharshabad) north 
 of Mt. Ararat in Kussia; it has been the seat of the 
 Pontiff since the time of St. Gregory. The present 
 CathoHcos is Kt. Eev. Bishop Mugurditch Kirimian. 
 He is very much esteemed and loved by the Armenians 
 throughout the world. Before he became Catholicos, 
 he was Patriarch in Constantinople, and was the most 
 popular and the ablest of Patriarchs, but the present 
 Sultan of course hated him, and according to stories 
 I heard from good authority, when I was in Constan- 
 tinople, tried repeatedly to kill him. One day he 
 was summoned to the palace to see the Sultan; but on 
 arriving there, was instead locked into a room with a 
 brazier of burning charcoal, and left to die. Before 
 it was too late, however, the Russian Ambassador, 
 being informed of the attempt, saved his life. Pall- 
 ing to get rid of him that way, the Sultan banished 
 him to Jerusalem, but sent false reports to the news- 
 papers, that he thought highly of the Patriarch, and 
 
110 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 liad given him money to go to Jerusalem that he 
 might improve his health and enjoy himself. The 
 Sultan lives and breathes falsehood. 
 
 While in Jerusalem, Kirimian was shadowed by 
 the Sultan's detectives; but about three years ago he 
 was elected Catholicos bv the Armenians, and the Rus- 
 sian Czar (not the present one, but his father, Alex- 
 ander), sanctioned his election. The Armenians are 
 proud of him, for he is worthy of his office. He is a 
 great scholar, and the author of several books which 
 are worthy of translation into English. His book 
 Traghti Endanik (the family of Paradise), is the best 
 book I ever saw or read in any language on family 
 life. In it he describes the first holy family, which 
 was created in the Garden of Eden, in Armenia, and 
 then goes on to describe a holy family, the ideal fam- 
 ily, a true home. It is full of the Holy Spirit, Cath- 
 olicos Kirimian was married and had a family, and 
 really his family was a holy family and he had an 
 ideal home, — therefore Armenians call him Kirimian 
 Hayrig or " father,'' and he is worthy of the title; 
 but his wife died. He is also a great ora- 
 tor, preaching fiery gospel sermons as our great- 
 est revivalists preach them. He loved the Am- 
 erican missionaries in Constantinople, and they 
 returned the feeling. Kirimian was born in Van 
 April 16, 1820; therefore he is now 76 years old, but 
 full of life and vigor. I hope he will live longer, to 
 see his beloved nation and country saved from the 
 oppressions of the cruel Turkish Sultan. I could 
 
THE ar:menian dynasties. Ill 
 
 write a book on the life of Kirimian and his great 
 deeds in Armenia, for the Armenians ; how he opened 
 schools and established printing presses; how he wetit 
 to the Congress in Berlin and championed the Armen- 
 ian cause; and all his noble works. But this is not 
 the place. 
 
 THE PAKRADOONIAN DYNASTY. 
 For a century after the Mohammedan conquest 
 of Persia, the fortunes of Armenia were apparently at 
 their lowest ebb, and as a country it almost disappears 
 from history ; but by one of the compensations of na- 
 ture, which provides that human force, like other 
 force, cannot be extinguished, but if suppressed will 
 find an outlet elsewhere, its people began a career of 
 brilliancy and power unequaled in its history, and 
 broadened from the rule of a tormented buffer-state 
 to that of the great Byzantine Empire itself. The 
 Saracen torrent flowed over Armenia's lowlands and 
 up to the base of its mountain fortresses, but never 
 overcame them; generation after generation the con- 
 tending forces battled together, surging back and forth, 
 and filling the beautiful valleys with fire and blood, 
 but Armenia proper was never added to the list of 
 Saracen conquests, never made a part of the Moham- 
 medan Empire or strengthened Mohammedanism 
 till four centuries later through Byzantine greed and 
 folly. Internally it was all in feudal anarchy again 
 so far as concerned any one central focus of gov- 
 ernment. Even the Persian satraps had gone from 
 the Persian side, and with them the half -control they 
 
112 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 liad kept over tlie turbulent baronage; on the Roman 
 side from early in the seventh century to early in the 
 eighth, the throne of Constantinople was filled with 
 weak and unstable monarchs, fighting for Anatolia 
 against the Saracens, and unable to exercise any ef- 
 fective control over Armenia, to which indeed they 
 looked as a frontier defense against those very foes. 
 
 But let us not attach too harsh a meaning to " an- 
 archy.'' There were a hundred rulers, it is true, great 
 dukes and barons, each supreme in his own district; 
 but because they held power by the sword against a 
 savage enemy, their subjects had to be a strong, inde- 
 pendent race, with arms in their hands, which they 
 would use against their chiefs as well as the foreign- 
 ers if there was great oppression. In this fiery school, 
 Armenia learned the sternest lessons of self-help and 
 discipline. With no interference from outsiders to 
 fear, and no help from them to be got, it became even 
 more confirmed in its own independent isolated ways, 
 a world to itself as it has been ever since. Its culti- 
 ^'ato-rs tilled their fields as they had done for so many 
 centuries, and its scholars read such books as they 
 had, and wrote such as their own minds furnished. 
 But vast numbers of its hardy sons took service in 
 the Greek armies, and became the bone and sinew of 
 the defense of Asia Minor against the caliphs ; not only 
 so, but they rose by hundreds to the highest commands 
 in the empire, both civil and military. They formed 
 the best " society " in Constantinople itself; and to 
 crown all, a score of emperors and empresses in four 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 113 
 
 different lines, including the most illustrious ones that 
 ever sat on the throne from Constantine down, and 
 who ruled the empire for two hundred and seventy- 
 seven years, were Armenians. 
 
 It is within the truth, and can be justified from the 
 greatest of English historians, to say that for four 
 centuries the Byzantine Empire was not a Greek but 
 an Armenian empire. Armenians by blood filled all 
 the great offices of state, commanded the armies, occu- 
 pied the throne for nearly three hundred years, pre- 
 served the empire from external invasion and internal 
 disintegration. It was the accession of an Armenian 
 dynasty that turned it from a decaying power to one 
 that expanded steadily for two centuries, from one 
 falling into anarchy to one the glory of the world for 
 scientific organizations; and it was the final overthrow 
 of Armenian influence that ruined the empire, being 
 followed almost at once by the loss of half its territory 
 and the richest part, and the break-up of its system of 
 civil administration. Everywhere in the time of 
 Byzantine glory you find the list full of Armenian 
 names. The appearance of " Bardas '' as the name of 
 generals or civil magnates is always proof of Ar- 
 menian blood, and that name is monotonously com- 
 mon; it is the Greek form of " Vartan," though now 
 and then they make it ^^ Bardanes." One of the 
 greatest conquerors in Byzantine history, John Kur- 
 kuas, was an Armenian, from a family which sup- 
 plied three generations of statesmen and generals, and 
 two great emperors. And this is part of what the 
 
114 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 immortal liistorian of " Greece Under Foreign Dom- 
 ination," George Finlay, has to say: — 
 
 " At the accession of Leo III (717), the Hellenic 
 race occupied a very subordinate position in the em- 
 pire. The predominant influence in the political ad- 
 ministration was in the hands of Asiatics, and par- 
 ticularly of Armenians, who filled the highest mili- 
 tary commands. Of the numerous rebels who as- 
 sumed the title of emperor, the greater part were Ar- 
 menians. Artabasdos, who rebelled against his broth- 
 er, Constantine Y, was an Armenian. Alexios Mou- 
 sel, strangled by order of Constantine YI, in the 
 year 790; Bardan called the Turk, who rebelled 
 against Nicephorus I; Arsaber [Arshavir] the 
 father-in-law of Leo Y, convicted of treason in 
 808; and Thomas, who revolted against Mich- 
 ael II, were all Asiatics, and most of them Ar- 
 menians. Many of the Armenians in the Byzan- 
 tine Empire belonged to the oldest and most illustrious 
 families in the Christian world; and their connection 
 with the remains of Roman society at Constantinople, 
 in which the pride of birth was cherished, was a proof 
 that Asiatic influence had eclipsed Roman and Greek 
 in the government of the empire. An amazing in- 
 stance of the influence of Asiatic prejudices at Con- 
 stantinople will appear in the eagerness displayed by 
 Basil I, a Sclavonian groom from Macedonia, to claim 
 descent from the Armenian royal family." (But I 
 shall show that he was an Armenian.) 
 
 Let us note the Armenian sovereigns of the 
 Byzantine Empire. First the great Iconoclast house, 
 of Leo the so-called Isaurian, the saviour and restorer 
 of the empire, which reigned from 716 to 797. Leo 
 considered himself an Armenian, and he ought to have 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 115 
 
 known best, and he married his daughter to an Ar- 
 menian. He saved Constantinople from capture by 
 the Saracens, causing the destruction of the finest 
 Mohammedan army ever got together; of its 180,000 
 men only 30,000 got back home, according to the 
 Mohammedan historians. Twenty-two years later 
 another great Moslem army was annihilated by Leo, 
 and for two centuries the Saracens scarcely troubled 
 the empire again. But not only so, he remodeled the 
 whole administration so effectively that no serious 
 break-down occurred for three centuries, and he put 
 new life into the whole society, so that it began to 
 outgrow its enemies, as well as outfight them. After 
 his able dynasty ended, another Armenian, Leo Y, 
 reigned seven and a half years, from 813 to 820. 
 About half a century later began the Basilian dy- 
 nasty, under which the laws were codified, and Bul- 
 garia destroyed. Basil was born in Macedonia, but 
 the name of his brother, Symbatios, Armenian Simpad, 
 shows that he was of an Armenian family, the col- 
 onies of Armenians having spread all over the civilized 
 world. His line reigned without a break from 867 
 to 963, when the beautiful widow Theophano was 
 pushed aside for sixteen years by another Armenian 
 house, Mkephoros Phokas and his nephew John Zim- 
 iskes, two of the ablest generals and statesmen ever on 
 the throne, descendants of a brother of the great com- 
 mander, John Kurkuas, before spokeT* of; then Theo- 
 phano's son, Basil II — Boulgaroktonos, the Bulga- 
 rian slayer, and the ultimate destroyer of Armenia as 
 
116 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 well — took the throne, 979, and the dynasty con- 
 tinued till 1057, when it had run to dregs, and had 
 just before finally ruined Armenia, and by so doing 
 ruined the empire. 
 
 To go back to Armenia itself. The reason a feu- 
 dal anarchy always ends in a military monarchy, no 
 matter how able or self-willed every one of the sepa- 
 rate chiefs may be, is that this very class most in- 
 terested in perpetuating it grow weary of it. The 
 stronger barons oppress and plunder the weaker, who 
 are always superior in numbers, and in united strength 
 if they will act together. A small lord may like to 
 be free from control by the king's officers as well as 
 a great one ; but if he can only have that privilege by 
 letting his overbearing neighbor be free from it too, 
 and rob him, he finds it does not pay, and sighs for a 
 law that will control everyone alike, and a strong ruler 
 to enforce it. So if a chief in such a community comes 
 to. be known as having a hard hand and letting no one 
 be above the law but himself, the small landholders 
 flock under his banner; he grows into a prince, and 
 eventually some prince of such a family will make 
 himself king, with the goodwill and help of all but a 
 few great houses, who feel able to take care of them- 
 selves and desirous of taking care of others. 
 
 This happened in Armenia. In 743, a century 
 after the battle of ITehavend and four years after Leo's 
 crushing defeat of the second great Saracen army, we 
 find that a chief named A shod, of the family of Pak- 
 rad or Bagrat, claiming descent from the ancient Jews 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. Il7 
 
 (see the Haigian dynasty in this book), had man- 
 aged to win control over central and northern Ar- 
 menia; how long it had been exercised, or what it 
 grew from, no one knows. Ashod I is the first known 
 founder of the Pakradoonian dynasty, though it is 
 counted as beginning from the recognition of its in- 
 dependence by the caliphs over a century later. He 
 recovered some parts of Armenia proper^ and fought 
 hard for Lesser Armenia. The family had vigorous 
 blood in it, and somewhere in the ninth century — 885 
 is the date fixed — it was recognized by the caliphs as 
 an independent house of kings, and Armenia as a king- 
 dom. But it had really been so for over a hundred 
 years before. 
 
 Ashod II, "the Iron," gained his title from his 
 stern military powder; he beat back the Arabs and gave 
 the land peace for a considerable time. He left no 
 son, and his brother Appas siTcceeded him; another 
 brave and wise ruler, who brought back the Armen- 
 ian captives held in bondage by the Saracens. He 
 made the city of Kars his capital. It is now owned by 
 Russia, having been captured by her forces in the 
 Russo-Turkish war of 1878. He greatly improved 
 the city, and built a beautiful cathedral there. After 
 a reign of twenty-four years he died in peace, and his 
 son succeeded him as Ashod III. 
 
 This was the glory of the line in prowess and gen- 
 erosity; he reminds one of Alfred the Great, in Eng- 
 land. He was the terror of his country's enemies; 
 not one of them — Arab, Greek, or Persian — dared 
 
118 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 to invade Armenia, and they sent presents to conciliate 
 his friendship. It was under him that the country be- 
 came formally independent again. He filled it with 
 fortified places. He gave all his personal income in 
 charity, and established almshouses and state chari- 
 ties. He was so benevolent and so interested in the 
 destitute that he was called The Merciful. He ruled 
 over Armenia twenty-six years, and was succeeded by 
 his son Simpad. This was neither a good man nor 
 good ruler; corrupt, cruel, and ambitious only for 
 selfish purposes. He made the city of Ani, on the 
 north side of Mt. Ararat, the royal capital, built strong 
 walls and lofty towers around it, and is said to have 
 erected 1001 churches in it — which he might do, and 
 still be a bad man. The extent of its still existing 
 ruins of palaces, churches, towers, and castles testifies 
 that it was one of the great cities of the world, like 
 Babylon and Antioch. 
 
 For more than a century Armenia flourished and 
 grew rich; then it disappeared once more under the 
 hammer and anvil of Byzantine and Saracen, aided by 
 internal disruption — the traitorousness of its great 
 nobles, who hated the kings for controlling their law- 
 lessness. Let us take in just its situation. It included 
 the heart of the Armenian highlands; but it had not 
 the extent of old Armenia, several Armenian districts 
 being independent of it, and either free or tributary to 
 the Byzantine Empire. Ani was its seat; but the dis- 
 trict around Kars, fifty miles northwest, had split off 
 into a separate principality, the boundary between the 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 119 
 
 two being the Aras; on the east was Yaspourakan, 
 another princedom; on the west Sebaste, another; on 
 the north Iberia, and Abkhasia or Abasgia or Albania, 
 the realms of the Georgians ; and one or two others not 
 quite certain, — but all these ruled by Armenian 
 princes, mostly of the Pakradoonian house. Though 
 Armenia was in fragments, therefore, the pieces 
 formed a sort of family confederacy, and often acted 
 together, as they did to their eventual ruin. Their 
 folly paved the way for the destruction of Armenian 
 national existence, and the worse folly of a Byzan- 
 tine emperor accomplished it. About 1020 the Sel- 
 juk Turks were pressing so hard on Yaspourakan that 
 the prince, Sennacherib, was unable to hold out, and 
 ceded his dominion to Basil II of Constantinople in 
 return for the sovereignty of Sebaste, which he agreed 
 to hold as a Byzantine governor; great numbers of 
 his subjects went with him. Something about this 
 transaction roused the Armenian national feeling to 
 resentment; for John Simpad, king of Armenia 
 (known at this time as the Kingdom of Ani, from its 
 capital), joined with George the Pakradoonian kins; 
 of Iberia, to promise help to a couple of discontented 
 generals, one at least an Armenian, who were to raise 
 the standard of revolt in Cappadocia and call on all 
 Armenians to rise. It was to have been a general re- 
 volt of all eastern Asia Minor. But the mighty Basil, 
 conqueror of Bulgaria, and nearing the end of his half- 
 century's reign, first crushed the rebellion by buying 
 up one of the generals and getting him to assassinate 
 
120 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 the other (the Armenian), and then crushed the league 
 of Bagratian kings. The king of Armenia, as the 
 price of retaining his throne, was compelled to sign a 
 treaty ceding the kingdom to the Byzantine Empire 
 after his death. 
 
 John Simpad was succeeded by his nephew Kakig, 
 an able ruler and good general. But in 1042 there was 
 placed on the Byzantine throne the fourth husband 
 of the despicable old female (Zoe), whose male crea- 
 tures, married or not married to her, misgoverned 
 the empire for nearly thirty years. The reign of Con- 
 stantine Monomachos stands out black in the history 
 of the world; it not only destroyed Armenia, but it 
 fatally wounded the Greek Empire; it gave Asia 
 Minor to the Turks; it was the first great step towards 
 subjecting Eastern Christianity to the Mohammedans; 
 it began the Eastern Question. The sack of Constan- 
 tinople by the Turks, four centuries later, was directly 
 due to it. Almost never has sheer contemptible neg- 
 ative good-for-nothingness produced such awful re- 
 sults. He was a worthless man and an utterly incap- 
 able statesman; a libertine without decency, a spend- 
 thrift without generosity or taste, a ruler without sense 
 of responsibility. Having spent on debauchery or his 
 favorites, or diversions, or palaces in Constantinople, 
 or other selfish, short-sighted gratifications, or on the 
 church to win its indulgence for them, all the money 
 he could wring from his subjects without risking his 
 throne, he bethought himself of another resource. 
 The provinces on the frontiers of Iberia, Armenia, 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 121 
 
 and Syria, were exempted from taxation, and the small 
 dependent states in that region from tribute, in con- 
 sideration of maintaining bodies of militia to defend 
 their territories, and save the central government from 
 keeping regular troops there. The emperor ordered 
 the militia disbanded, and the taxes and tribute col- 
 lected and remitted to Constantinople as from other 
 places. This monstrous piece of imbecility laid the 
 southeastern frontier open to the Turks at once; and 
 the money was quickly wasted in the emperor's pleas- 
 ures. But even this w^as not enough, and he cast his 
 eyes on Armenia as a rich country to squeeze taxes 
 out of, and sent word to Kakig to fulfill his uncle's will, 
 and yield up his kingdom. Kakig refused. Con- 
 stantino formed an alliance with the Saracen emir of 
 Tovin (on the east flank of Armenia), and sent an 
 army to attack Ani; and a number of the great Ar- 
 menian nobles turned traitors and joined the Byzan- 
 tine forces. Kakig could not make head against the 
 three allies with the slender forces left him ; and choos- 
 ing to yield to Christians rather than Saracens, though 
 Constantino e^ddently had no such scruples, surren- 
 dered iVni to the imperial forces (1045), and went to 
 Constantinople to plead his cause with the emperor. 
 Constantino would not yield, and Kakig resigned his 
 kingship for a magistracy, and large estates in Cappa- 
 docia. The emperor forced the Catholicos to leave 
 Ani and live at Arzen, then at Constantinople ; finally 
 the Comnenian house allowed him to settle in Sebaste 
 among his people. The princedom of Kars alone 
 
122 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 preserved its independence against both Christians 
 and Saracens, and thus the Armenian life still beat; 
 but as a kingdom, Armenia perished and the Pakra- 
 doonian dynasty with it when Ani surrendered. 
 
 This piece of wanton foolishness and criminality 
 had its immediate reward; it laid all x\.sia Minor open 
 to the Turks — for the Armenians after they had lost 
 their independence would not fight for their oppress- 
 ors as they had fought for themselves; and the Turks 
 were ready. Three years before the capture of Ani, 
 a Turkish chief, cousin of Togrul Beg, flying after 
 a defeat, had asked the Byzantine governor of Yas- 
 pourakan to let him pass through that district; on 
 being refused, he attacked the imperial troops, routed 
 them, captured the governor, and on reaching Turkish 
 ground sold him as a slave, and urged Togrul to in- 
 vade the Byzantine territories, as they were of match- 
 less fertility and wealth, and the troops not formid- 
 able. Togrul sent his nephew Ibrahim to do so in 
 1048; the timid Byzantine commanders, after defeat- 
 ing a detachment of his troops, waited for reinforce- 
 ments before encountering the main body, and Ibra- 
 him, finding the movable wealth mostly stored up in 
 fortresses, assailed the rich, unfortified city of Arzen, 
 with 300,000 people, who had neglected to transfer 
 their possessions to Theodosiopolis, the nearest fortress. 
 It was one of the chief seats of Asiatic commerce, full 
 of the warehouses of Armenian and Syrian merchants. 
 They defended themselves for six days with such des- 
 peration that Ibrahim, giving up the hope of plunder, 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 123 
 
 and wishing at once to secure his rear from attack 
 while retreating, and to injure Byzantine resources, 
 set fire to the city, and reduced it to ashes. Few such 
 conflagrations have ever been witnessed on earth; per- 
 haps Moscow and Chicago are the only things com- 
 parable. It is said that 140,000 persons perished in 
 the fire and in the massacre by the Turks that fol- 
 lowed, and the prisoners taken were such a multi- 
 tude that the slave markets of Asia were filled with 
 ladies and children from Arzen. This was the first of 
 the many such calamities that have dispersed the Ar- 
 menians all over the world, like the Jews, have re- 
 duced one of the richest and most populous countries 
 on the earth to a poor and thinly populated one, and 
 turned Asia Minor practically into a desert. The next 
 year Kars was overrun; but in 1050 an attack on 
 Manzikert failed, and after an unsuccessful invasion 
 again in 1052, the Turks retired for a while, but only 
 for a more terrible onslaught. 
 
 Before going on to the next dynasty, I will finish 
 the story of Kakig. In his Cappadocian magistracy 
 he was still called King Kakig and honored as a king. 
 One day he heard that a Greek bishop had called his 
 dog " Arm en " to insult the Armenians, and went to 
 his house to make sure, and to exact vengeance if it 
 were true. They drank heavily together, and Kakig 
 ordered the bishop to call his dog; the bishop, too 
 drunk to know what he was about, called him " Here, 
 Armen.'' Kakig, in a rage, ordered his retainers 
 to put the bishop and his dog into a bag together, 
 
124 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 and then beat the dog till lie bit liis master to death. 
 The church was too powerful for even a king to murder 
 a bislio]3 with impunity, and Kakig was hanged on a 
 castle wall. This gave rise to the Turkish proverb, 
 ^^ Kart Giavour musliman almaz, Room Ermenie 
 dost almaz " (An infidel never becomes a Moslem, a 
 Greek never loves an Armenian). The Turks have 
 always acted on this, and used the Greeks against the 
 Armenians; but the old hate has died out now under 
 common oppression. 
 
 THE RUPENIAN DYNASTY. 
 The imbecile policy of the Byzantine Court con- 
 tinued after the suppression of the line of Pakrad, and 
 with even worse results. Having destroyed the in- 
 terest and even the right of Armenia to keep up an 
 army of her owm, and confiscated her revenues ap- 
 plied to that purpose, the loss of defenders should have 
 been made good as far as possible, by keeping a large 
 regular army there in their place; but the same cor- 
 rupt and profligate court avarice which had caused 
 the one, prevented the other. ISTot only did Constan- 
 tine X (1059-67) actually reduce the number of his 
 army, leave it unprovided with arms and ammunition 
 and other supplies, let the frontier fortifications fall 
 out of repair, and leave the garrison unpaid, to save 
 money for his overgrown court of costly favorites 
 (the Byzantine court a little later cost $20,000,000 a 
 year by itself), and let the officers put civilians on the 
 rolls, and made artisans and shop-keepers of their 
 real soldiers to pocket fraudulent pay for themselves, 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 125 
 
 as the Persians do now, but lie used to disband most of 
 his army after every campaign to save paying them, 
 letting them have free quarters on the citizens. The 
 Seljuks were prompt to take advantage of this. In 
 1060 Togrul sacked Sebaste. In 1063 his greater 
 nephew Alp Arslan began a series of raids that soon 
 reduced Iberia and Northern Armenia almost to a 
 waste. The systematic policy of the Turks was to 
 make any country they invaded impossible of civilized 
 habitation again, by obliterating all the results and 
 " plant '' of civilization which many ages of labor and 
 money had enriched it with. They deliberately cut 
 down all the vineyards, orchards, and olive groves, 
 wrecked the aqueducts, filled up the wells and cisterns, 
 broke up the bridges, and in short made the land (ex- 
 cept for a few fortresses) a mere desert pasture ground 
 to feed their cattle on. They were only nomad shep- 
 herds and cattle-men, despised cities as at best neces- 
 sary evils, and did not care for tilling the soil. What- 
 ever spot the Turk has set his foot on, he has blasted 
 like a breath from hell, turning to naught the labors 
 of thousands of years at a blow ; and he has never put 
 anything of his own in place of what he has destroyed. 
 Where are the Turkish great cities developed by them, 
 the Turkish flourishing agricultural regions, the Turk- 
 ish manufactures, the Turkish literature or art ? At 
 most they have not quite been able to exterminate 
 others' progress, because they must perish themselves 
 in doing it. 
 
 The Armenian king of Iberia had to submit; the 
 
126 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Armenian prince of Lorhi close by had to give his 
 daughter's hand to Alp Arslan; and at last the royal 
 city of Ani, though strongly situated on a rocky penin- 
 sula and protected on two sides by a rapid river and 
 a deep ravine, was left without help by the Byzan- 
 tines, and in spite of a heroic defense, was taken by 
 storm, June 6, 1064. This convinced the Armenian 
 prince of Kars (another Kakig), that he could not 
 hold out; he surrendered his province to the Byzan- 
 tine Empire for the appanage of the district of Amas- 
 sia. This removed the last Armenian prince from 
 the old seats of the race, which were now all occupied 
 by the Turks; and the Armenians emigrated in vast 
 numbers to the districts west and south (old Cappado- 
 cia and Cilicia), where their native princes were liv- 
 ing as great Byzantine dukes and governors. A num- 
 ber of semi-independent vassal principalities were soon 
 formed, making as before an Armenian wall between 
 the Turks and the empire ; but only part way, and far 
 weaker, having left its impregnable mountains, and 
 being much poorer, and having lost heart. The upper 
 part, through Old Armenia, was left wholly open ; and 
 the Seljuks poured into Asia Minor like a flood, ruin- 
 ing the country beyond reparation as they went. 
 Within a dozen years from the capture of Ani, the 
 Seljuk dominion reached to Mcaea, fifty miles from 
 Constantinople, and the seat of the first Christian 
 church council. Its lands could be seen from St. So- 
 phia; the Byzantine Empire retained only a strip of 
 Asia Minor along the sea-coast. 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 127 
 
 But the Armenian courage and national spirit, 
 and the political and military ability which had gov- 
 erned the Eastern Empire so many centuries, were not 
 extinct. The heart of the nation, forced out of its 
 immemorial lands, still beat strongly, and animated 
 their mass of dukedoms, now forming a compact body 
 in the center of Asia Minor, with a common life and 
 national instinct, which was soon to weld them into a 
 new Armenian kingdom, as true and real a one as the 
 old, Armenians under an Armenian prince, but in a 
 wholly different territory, south and southwest of tlie 
 former. Among the great barons of this district was 
 one Rupen (Reuben), a relative of the slain Kakig; it 
 is said that he saw him hanged. At any rate, no sooner 
 was the deed accomplished than he retired to the moun- 
 tains of ^Northeastern Cilicia, and raised the standard 
 of Armenian independence, with himself as king. 
 There was absolutely no reason why it should 
 not be gained; the Seljuk conquests had cut the 
 Armenian districts wholly off from the Greek 
 Empire, so that a Greek army could not come 
 upon them to punish them for revolt Avithout 
 traversing at least a hundred miles of Turkish or 
 other Mohammedan territory. The Armenian set- 
 tlements were an island in a sea of Mohammedanism. 
 The new kingdom of Cilicia or Lesser Armenia grew 
 with a rapidity that would seem miraculous, only it 
 was a mere coalescing of the fragments of Armenia 
 into their old unity ; in no long time it had spread east 
 to the Euphrates, taking in Melitene (Malatia), and 
 
128 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Samosata, north fully half way to the Black Sea, and 
 south to the Mediterranean, occupying the coast from 
 Tarsus almost to Antioch. This kingdom played a 
 part of the first importance in the history of Asia 
 Minor for close on three centuries; its territories 
 were gradually whittled away by Turks and Mongols, 
 but it kept the Eastern Mediterranean open for Chris- 
 tian action against the Mohammedans to the last. To 
 their shame, the Byzantine emperors were much more 
 hostile to it than to the Turks, with whom they often 
 allied themselves against it ; for some years it was vas- 
 sal to the Byzantine Empire ; later it was overwhelmed 
 by the Mameluke deluge from Egypt, and allied itself 
 with Jenghiz Khan's Mongol hordes against them; 
 but the Mongols passed and the Mamelukes remained, 
 and exacted a terrible vengeance, putting an end to 
 the kingdom with the usual horrors of Oriental con- 
 quest in 1375. 
 
 Rupen's son Constantine succeeded him. It was 
 by his help that the leaders of the first crusade captured 
 Antioch. Constantine was succeeded by his two sons, 
 Leo and Theodore jointly, but finally Leo reigned 
 alone ; he was an able prince, fought the Saracens with 
 success, and much enlarged his kingdom, and at last 
 made a naval attack on Isaurian Seleucia, the frontier 
 fortress of the Byzantine Empire in this part, and an 
 important seaport. This brought ^^ Handsome John," 
 the ablest of the Comnenian line of Byzantine Em- 
 perors, into the field ; he stormed the Cilician seaports, 
 and then reduced the chief interior fortresses ; Leo fled 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 129 
 
 to the Taurus Mountains, but was captured, and died 
 in captivity at Constantinople. His son Rupen had 
 his eyes put out on a charge of treason, and died of 
 it; but his other son, Toros, escaped, and after John's 
 death restored the CiUcian kingdom, which had tem- 
 porarily been made vassal by John. Toros is the 
 glory of the whole Rupenian line; he was of the first 
 rank, both as a general and a statesman. He scarcely 
 ever suffered a military reverse. He beat the Byzan- 
 tine armies in campaign after campaign, and the Sel- 
 jnks as well; under him the new Armenia was almost 
 a match for all its enemies combined, and no one of 
 them dreamed of attacking it single-handed. Levon 
 was another able ruler, who maintained the power 
 and prosperity of the kingdom; he was an ally of the 
 great Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in the Third 
 Crusade, assisted him in capturing Iconium (1190), 
 and both Frederick and the Greek Emperor Alexius 
 III sent him crowns, — the second no great honor, as 
 Alexius was one of the most contemptible of human 
 beings. In Levon's time the capital of the kingdom 
 was Cis, where there is now a great Armenian mon- 
 astery with rare manuscripts, the residence of a Cath- 
 olicos. The changes in the extent of the kingdom 
 are very curious ; perhaps most curious of all (since the 
 Armenians were always a race of inland and high- 
 land farmers, not seamen), the new kingdom was grad- 
 ually crowded down on the north and lost two-thirds 
 of its territory in that direction, but steadily extended 
 along the coast until it came to include not only all 
 
130 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Cilicia but all of old Isaiiria clear to its western moun- 
 tain barrier; hundreds of miles of seaboard, from close 
 to Antioch on the one side, to far west of Cyprus on the 
 other, being indeed a strong maritime power. At the 
 end it had lost these western coast extensions, but still 
 had an area larger than that of the Crimea now, a very 
 considerable power to hold the northeast corner of the 
 Mediterranean. 
 
 It was during these times that the hard-pressed 
 Armenians received promises from the Popes to help 
 them against their enemies if they would use the 
 Roman ritual and ceremonial, and submit themselves 
 to the papacy. The country never did accept Ro- 
 manism, though some churches introduced the ritual 
 and images, and conformed to the Roman fashion; 
 and of course it never did get any help from the popes, 
 who had nothing to give but recommendations, which 
 the temporal powers paid no attention to. 
 
 Levon YI was the last of the line. He was a weak, 
 easy-going man, handsome and popular, but not of 
 much ability; perhaps he could not have saved his 
 country if he had been. I have told of the Mamelukes 
 and their invasion; they overran the country, and 
 treated the people as the Turks have done lately, 
 striking terror to them by terrific massacres, satiating 
 their lust on the women, and carrying off many thou- 
 sands of captives for wives or slaves. Levon was taken 
 captive also; after some years in Egypt, he was per- 
 mitted to go free, wandered through Europe for a 
 dozen years, and finally settled in Paris, where he died 
 
THE ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 131 
 
 in 1393. He was buried by the high altar of the 
 Church of the Celestine; the following epitaph is on 
 his monument, which still exists to-day : 
 
 Here lies Levon VI, the noble Lousinian Prince, 
 the King of Armenia, 
 who died 1393, A.D., Nov. 23d, in Paris. 
 
 I have been dealing here with the special kingdom 
 of Armenia, under a regular king; but it must not 
 be forgotten that the older sections, ruled by Greek 
 or Turk, were Armenia still, inhabited largely by Ar- 
 menians, in spite of emigration and Turkish settle- 
 ment, and their fortunes really part of this history. 
 Under both Jenghiz Khan and his successors, and 
 Timour,yevery horror was let loose on the unhappy 
 lands.* For nearly a century the first Tatar invasion 
 cursed and devasted it; hundreds of villages were 
 destroyed, the inhabitants slain or at the mercy of 
 the savages, and vast numbers emigrated in despair. 
 Among others, the cities of Ani and Erzeroum were 
 captured, and every inhabitant put to the sword, each 
 soldier being given his portion to kill, so that none 
 should escape. Timour compelled all whom he 
 spared to become Mohammedans. When he took the 
 city of Yan, he threw the inhabitants from the castle 
 walls until the dead bodies reached to the height of 
 the walls. A great famine followed, and many thou- 
 sands died of it; the starving wretches sometimes ate 
 their children or parents to sustain life a little longer. 
 The reader will see later whether the modern Turks 
 have any superiority over the hordes of the thirteenth 
 or fifteenth century. 
 
lY. 
 KULEES OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIKE. 
 
 SULTANS OF THE PAST. 
 
 The Ottoman Empire begins with Othman, born 
 1258 A.D. ; the dynasty is usually counted from the 
 time of his being given a local governorship by the last 
 of the Seljuk Sultans, in 1289. The tribe was simply 
 one small group of families when we first hear of it; 
 Othman's father Ertogrul entered the Seljuk dominion 
 not many years before that date with only four hun- 
 dred tents, say two thousand people in all, counting 
 women and children. They had been driven from 
 their homes in Central Asia by the Mongols. The 
 Seljuk Sultan Ala-ed-din III made Othman governor 
 of Karadja-hissar (Melangeia). ^N^ow Othman, though 
 a plundering marauder like other tribal chiefs, turbu- 
 lent and cruel, knew some things that better men 
 never find out. He knew that impartial justice is a 
 greater strength to a state and a greater lure to draw 
 others to it than anything else; he made the fair at 
 Karadja-hissar a model of business equity for all races 
 and religions, it was thronged with traders, and other 
 Turkish tribes soon flocked to the banner of the man 
 who never broke his promises and dealt out even- 
 handed justice. The lying Greeks never learned the 
 lesson in all their history. In a dozen years he was 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. IgS 
 
 able to collect an army of 5,000 soldiers, beat a Byzan- 
 tine force sent against him, overrun a large province 
 of Asia Minor, and with the plunder greatly increased 
 his following. He realized too that education and 
 thorough practical training and moral discipline were 
 the foundations of success; most of us know that now, 
 but few understood it then. But the wild and bar- 
 barous Turks could not be educated and disciplined 
 as he wished, — would not stand it and were incapable 
 of profiting by it, — and so he or his son Orkhan de- 
 veloped the terrible system which for centuries made 
 the " Turks " irresistible, which made the '' Turks " 
 seem to increase rapidly, and makes the '' Turks " to- 
 day appear numerous while in fact not one drop in ten 
 of the blood in their veins is Turkish at all. This was 
 to exact from the Christian population — Greek or 
 Armenian chiefly — a regular tribute of boys as well 
 as money. These were taken from their parents at 
 about eight years old, educated and trained in the 
 household of the Ottoman Sultan himself, of course 
 drilled in the Mohammedan religion, and gradually 
 inducted into the highest posts, civil or military, if 
 fit for them, or made into a special body guard for the 
 Sultan. These were called " yeni cheri '^ (new 
 soldiers), which is familiar to everybody in the form 
 " Janissaries." From that day to this, the Turkish 
 system has been built up by foreign blood, and outside 
 of the Sultanate pretty much entirely by foreign 
 brains; it was the constant infusion of fresh civilized 
 Christian ability and moral character into it that kept 
 
134 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 its inherent defects and vices from bringing it to an 
 end long ago. Finally the system partly rotted out 
 and partly became impossible to enforce for fear of 
 revolution (Sultan Mahmoud ended it in 1826); but 
 never outside of this has a tribe of barbarians ever 
 succeeded so completely in impressing into its own 
 service the powers of a higher race. It is as though 
 horses should have regularly broken and driven teams 
 of men for centuries ; even more usefully to the Turks, 
 because intermarriage (largely by force on their part) 
 has filled their own veins with civilized Armenian 
 and other blood. As soon as this reinforcement 
 stopped, the Turks began to decay. 
 
 I cannot enter even in outline into the political 
 history of the Armenians during the next few cen- 
 turies. The country has been torn into fragments, 
 and each fragment has a history so separate that there 
 would be no unity between them. One section of 
 what was once Armenia would be governed by Per- 
 sian officials; another occupied by the savage Kurds; 
 another mis-governed and oppressed by the Turks; 
 another under the rule of Russia; and so on. Persia, 
 when she recovered her national being, held and still 
 holds a small part of the eastern section, as I stated 
 earlier in the book, Russia the north; but the heart 
 of old Armenia is in Turkish hands. The Sultans 
 have succeeded in mixing themselves with the natives 
 and occupying their confiscated lands till the Armen- 
 ians are put in a minority in their own country. 
 
 I must correct here a notion fostered by historical 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 135 
 
 writers, that the Turks are very brave. They may 
 have been once, though I doubt it and there is no proof 
 of it ; but they certainly have gotten over it now. In 
 the last Turko-Russian war (1878), they ran by thous- 
 ands to Christian houses for protection. They are 
 just like wild dogs: savage and ferocious, but not 
 brave, l^or are they wise: they have some low cun- 
 ning, but no practical sagacity — that too is a thing of 
 the past. As to industrial talents they have simply 
 none whatever; they depend on foreigners for every- 
 thing : they will not learn and indeed cannot learn, and 
 never try to learn. They have never made a cannon 
 or even a gun, they never built a war vessel and very 
 few if any other kinds, they make neither powder nor 
 shot; all come from Europe or America. Nor have 
 they even decent military talent, the very thing they 
 pretend is their special business: their best generals 
 are Germans, their admiral for a long time was the 
 Englishman Hobart, I think the Englishman Woods 
 is so now. As to civil ability, their best administrators 
 have always been Armenians. Bezjian Amira was 
 Sultan Mahmoud's adviser; Haroun Dadian, another 
 Armenian, is the chief adviser in foreign affairs of the 
 present Sultan. His personal treasurer is an Ar- 
 menian, Portucalian Pasha. Is this inconsistent with 
 what I have said of his hating the Armenians for their 
 intelligence ? !N^ot in the least: he employs them in 
 spite of his hatred, because he can trust no others : the 
 Turks are too stupid and all others too unsafe. 
 
136 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 List of Ottoman Sultans and date of accession. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 1. Othman I, gazi, 1299 
 
 2. Orkhan I, gazi, 1327 
 
 3. Murad I, gazi, 1360 
 
 4. Bayazid I, jelderim, 1389 
 
 5. Mohammed I, clielebi, 1413 
 
 6. Murad II, gazi, 1421 
 
 7. Mohammed II, fatih, 1451 
 
 8. Bajazid II, gazi, 1481 
 
 9. Selim I, yavouz, 1512 
 
 10. Suleyman I, kanooni, 1520 
 
 11. Selim II, gazi, 1566 
 
 12. Murad III, gazi, 1574 
 
 13. Mohammed III, gazi, 1595 
 
 14. Ahmed I, gazi, 1603 
 
 15. Mustafa I, ....... . 1617 
 
 16. Othman II, guendj, 1618 
 
 17. Murad lY, gazi, 1622 
 
 18. Ibrahim I, 1640 
 
 19. Mohammed IV, 1648 
 
 20. Suleyman II, 1687 
 
 21. Ahmed II, 1691 
 
 22. Mustafa II, 1695 
 
 23. Ahmed III, gazi, 1702 
 
 24. Mahmud I, gazi, 1730 
 
 25. Othman III, 1754 
 
 26. Mustafa III, gazi, 1757 
 
 27. Abdul Hamid I, gazi, . . . . . 1773 
 
 28. Selim III, 1789 
 
 29. Mustafa IV, 1807 
 
 30. Mahmud II, adil, 1808 
 
 31. Abdul Mejid I, gazi, 1839 
 
 32. Abdul Aziz I, 1861 
 
 33. Murad Y, 1876 
 
 34. Abdul Hamid II, i^azi, .... 1876 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 137 
 
 Some of the above Sultans have special titles, like 
 our " William the Conqueror," " Charles the Bold," 
 '' Henry Beauclerk," etc. Thus, gazi and fatih mean 
 conqueror; adil, righteous; guendj, young; yavouz, 
 brave; kanooni, law-giver; yelderim, lightning; che- 
 lebi, gentleman. Most of them have the title gazi, or 
 conqueror; the present Sultan bears it because he 
 fought with Kussia. He was beaten, to be sure, but 
 he took the title all the same. 
 
 Sultan Mohammed II, who captured the city of 
 Constantinople, established an Armenian Patriarchate 
 there in 1461 A. D. The first Patriarch was Hova- 
 guem, the Bishop of Broosa, a friend of the Sultan. 
 Mohammed II had two motives in this: first, to have 
 an Armenian ecclesiastical center in Constantinople 
 for the nucleus of a strong Armenian settlement there, 
 to play off against the Greeks from whom the city was 
 taken, and who might be dangerous, whereas the feud 
 between Armenians and Greeks would make each 
 weaken the other; second, to have a hostage for the 
 Armenians, responsible for their not breaking into 
 revolt ; not at all for the benefit of the Armenians, but 
 for that of the Sultan. The same reason obtains to 
 this day. If there was no Patriarch, their cause 
 would be much better off. After the establishment 
 of this Patriarchate the Armenians had no more kings 
 or princes; their political head was the Patriarch. 
 Even after the Patriarchate was established they were 
 not safe. They yielded to the Sultans, they became 
 slaves to the Sultans, but the Persian Mohammedans 
 
138 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 were foes of the Turkish Mohammedans, and Armenia, 
 as of old in Roman times, was the battle-ground. In 
 the time of Sultan Ahmed and Shah Appas, the latter 
 overran Armenia and carried away the people to cap- 
 tivity, besides killing hundreds of thousands. Then 
 it was retaken by the Turks. Then a part of it was 
 captured by the Russians. Historians write of the 
 Huguenots and their sufferings; of the conflicts in 
 Europe between the Catholics and the Protestants. 
 How many centuries were the Protestants persecuted 
 and martyred? How many millions were killed by 
 the Roman Catholics? Do all the Protestant martyrs 
 in Europe number as many as the Armenian martyrs ? 
 I doubt it. 
 
 And let it not be said that these were not religious 
 martyrs, but merely victims of the fortunes of war or 
 political conflicts. The wars were three times out of 
 four based on real if not nominal grounds of religious 
 antagonism, — Mohammedan or Zoroastrian against 
 Christian, — or claims of religious protectorate, as 
 Russia over the Armenian Christians; the political 
 exigencies which called or formed a pretext for the 
 massacre of myriads of men and old women, the out- 
 rage of the young brides and maidens, the enslavement 
 of the children, were Avithout a single exception created 
 by the resistance of Christians to forced conversion, or 
 the fear of Mohammedan rulers that as Christians 
 thev meant to revolt, or sheer blind hatred to men of 
 another creed. The victims were truly martyrs to 
 Christianity. 
 
THE SULTAN, FROM A RECENT PORTRAIT. 
 
 (By permission of " The Youths Companion.") 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 139 
 
 THE PRESENT SULTAN, HAMID II. 
 
 This is the thirty-fourth Sultan in the Ottoman 
 line, and probably the worst, the least, and the last. 
 It is not likely the Turks will ever have another Sul- 
 tan, for this one is pretty sure to bring the Sultanate 
 to an end. His days are numbered, he knows it well, 
 and the Turks know it well too. Before his life and 
 his kingdom are finished, he has resolved to end the 
 Armenian nation; that, however, will not be ended, 
 the people will not be exterminated ; when the Turkish 
 Empire is abolished the remaining Armenians will 
 have freedom. 
 
 Hamid II was born September 22, 1842, second 
 son of Abdul Mejid, and wrested the throne from his 
 brother Mourad August 31, 1876. He is not a legiti- 
 mate Sultan, but a usurper. When but a little boy 
 he manifested a savage and cruel spirit. While the 
 Dalma Bagsh Palace, the largest in Constantinople, 
 perhaps in the world — was going up, he went to 
 visit it; seeing it unfinished, he called the Armenian 
 architect and told him it must be finished by the next 
 day. ^^ My dear prince and lord," said the architect, 
 " I wish I could finish it, but it is impossible; and es- 
 pecially not to-morrow, since it is Sunday, and we 
 Christians do not work on Sundays." ^^ You heathen 
 dog, you Armenian," said the boy Hamid, " if I grow 
 up, and some day become a Sultan, I will force all the 
 Armenians to break the Sabbath, and if they do not, 
 I will order the soldiers to kill them all." He is carry- 
 
140 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 ing out his threat. He grew to manhood without be- 
 coming any milder, and is morally corrupt besides. 
 He has drunken bouts with worthless associates, 
 and spent his time in all sorts of monstrous debauch- 
 ery and brutality. He was such a miserable wretch 
 that it is impossible to describe his beastly life on 
 paper. There is no humanity in him, no grace, no 
 sympathy, no brains, no strength; he is pale and sick, 
 well worthy to be called the ^' sick man of Turkey." 
 This is a very different description of him from that 
 given by General Lew Wallace and Mr. Terrell. I 
 can only say that I know what I am talking about, and 
 they do not. I lived in Constantinople, as a native of 
 Turkey, and with means of knowing, seeing him often, 
 and hear authentic stories of his doings day by day. 
 General Wallace was invited to the palace, feasted 
 and flattered, and his wife decorated with jewels; 
 naturally, he thinks no ill of a man who treated him so 
 well, and with whom he hopes for more good times 
 when he goes back. He has done infinite harm to the 
 cause of Armenia by his popular lectures, declaring 
 the atrocities '' exaggerated " (he evidently thinks that 
 if a newspaper report gives ten thousand men mur- 
 dered when there were only five, and all the women of 
 a city violated when a dozen of them got away, 
 you are entitled to dismiss the whole thing from your 
 mind as of little account), and the Sultan a good man, 
 incapable of such things. People are bewildered, and 
 ask, " How can we doubt a good American who was 
 minister there ? " Why, good people, what has his 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 141 
 
 ministry got to do with it ? He was hundreds of miles 
 from Armenia, and did not know any of the chief lan- 
 guages of Constantinople, — either Armenian, Turk- 
 ish, or Romanic ; and what could he tell of his host, ex- 
 cept of the quality of his hospitality ? A man usually 
 shows his best side to those he entertains; did he sup- 
 pose the Sultan was going to amuse his guests by 
 having one Armenian disemboweled, and another 
 emasculated or impaled on red-hot iron rods, and a 
 couple of women ravished, as a light and playful inter- 
 lude between the main dishes and the dessert ? His 
 praise of the Sultan is as valuable as his praise of the 
 Grand Llama would be, — he knows nothing of either ; 
 and his inference from the Sultanas pleasant talk that 
 he could not order a nation extirpated with hideous 
 cruelties, is simply imbecile. And since he h^s given 
 all this loose talk, the consular reports, from English 
 residents among the very scenes, have been published, 
 showing that the atrocities have not only not been ex- 
 aggerated, but are even worse than reported. In 
 this case, even the newspapers were unable to come up 
 to the truth; their rhetoric fell short of the full meas- 
 ure of the awful truth. 
 
 To go back a little: Twenty years ago Abdul 
 Aziz, uncle of the present Sultan, was the ruler of the 
 Ottoman Empire. He cared little for the country or 
 the people; he wanted only to eat and drink, and have 
 good times. He was a very strong and hearty man, 
 and I was told he could eat a whole roast lamb for 
 dinner, and think it probable. He had the innate 
 
142 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 cruelty of his family, tlieir love of blood for its own 
 sake. lie had tigers and lions fight together; he 
 would order a live lamb flung to a lion, and laugh to see 
 the lion tear and devour it. He married all the hand- 
 some girls he could find, but for pure animality; he 
 cared nothing for their education or virtue, and his 
 several hundred wives were what you might expect. 
 One of them fell in love with the commander-in-chief, 
 or Minister of War, Heussein Avni Pasha, a very 
 ambitious and daring adventurer, who had gained the 
 confidence of the Sultan, and went often to the palace. 
 The Sultan heard of the intrigue, went to the woman's 
 room, kicked her fatally, and threw her out of the 
 window. But before her death, she sent word to 
 Heussein to avenge her on the Sultan. Heussein' s 
 position was very critical; evidently it was a race be- 
 tween him and the Sultan which should kill the other 
 first. He went to Midhad, the Grand Yezir, and to 
 Kaysereli Ahmed, the admiral, both liberal-minded 
 pashas, in favor of establishing a constitutional (or 
 even if they could, a republican) government, and 
 without telling them his relations to and fears from 
 the Sultan, persuaded them that now was the time to 
 depose the Sultan, and establish liberal institutions, 
 and told them it must be done that night, or the Sultan 
 would get wind of it, and then good-by to all of them. 
 And he clinched the argument by telling them he 
 would order his soldiers to kill both of them if they 
 refused to join him, and then depose the Sultan just 
 the same; " as commander-in-chief," he said, " I can 
 
PRESENT SULTAN, HAMID II. 
 From an early portrait. 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. I43 
 
 compel obedience^ and I am in earnest." They con- 
 sented, and while the Sultan was asleep that night the 
 commander's soldiers and the admiral's sailors sur- 
 rounded the palace by the land and sea. This was 
 the Dalma Bagsh, the largest and handsomest palace 
 in Constantinople. Heussein entered, saying he had 
 important news for the Sultan. Going to the chamber 
 where Aziz was sleeping, he awakened him, and said, 
 "In the name of your nephew. Sultan Murad, I de- 
 pose you." Then he compelled him to go down-stairs 
 to a boat in waiting, filled with soldiers, carried him to 
 Cheragan Palace, and imprisoned him there; after 
 which he informed the Sultan's nephew, then Prince 
 Murad, that his uncle had been deposed because the 
 people would not endure him, and added, " As the 
 oldest in the royal family you succeed him, and I, as 
 commander-in-chief, have the honor and privilege of 
 humbly serving my master, and leading your majesty 
 to the throne of the Ottoman Empire." 
 
 Murad was too astonished to know w^hat to do or 
 say ; but Heussein was resolute, and Murad reluctantly 
 followed him to the Dalma Bagsh; there the com- 
 mander ordered the soldiers to cry out three times 
 " Padishahum chock yasa " (Long live the Sultan). 
 All this was about midnight; and meantime printed 
 notices were prepared and scattered throughout Con- 
 stantinople that Sultan Aziz was deposed and Sultan 
 Murad was on the throne. After a few days the 
 commander-in-chief sent a eunuch and a physician to 
 Cheragan Palace, with orders to put Aziz to death. 
 
144 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 They did so by chloroforming him and cutting his 
 blood-vessels with scissors. Heussein prepared a false 
 report stating that he had committed suicide, and 
 brought it to Sultan Murad. The latter did not be- 
 lieve it, and said, " you killed my uncle." Heussein 
 left the Sultan's presence in great anger, and went to 
 Midhad's palace to confer with him, calling in also 
 Kaysereli Ahmed and other officers. While they were 
 together, another officer, Cherkez Hassan by name, 
 brother-in-law of the dead Sultan, came to the palace, 
 informing the guard that he had a message from the 
 Sultan to the pashas, who were in conference. The 
 guard admitted him, and he went to the parlor. After 
 the usual salutations the commander asked him, ^' Has- 
 san, why did you come here ? '' Hassan replied, ^' I 
 came to kill you, dog," and fired three shots at him 
 from his revolver, stretching him dead on the floor. 
 Then, before the others could assail him, he killed 
 every one present, except Midhad, who escaped. Has- 
 san was finally captured and hanged, but Murad was 
 established on the throne. He was a good-natured and 
 liberal-minded man ; he believed in constitutional gov- 
 ernment, and organized a working system. There was 
 to be a parliament, one-third Christians and two-thirds 
 Mohammedans, elected by the people of the provinces 
 or vilayets. Each vilayet furnished three members, 
 two Mohammedans and one Christian, all indorsed 
 by the clergymen. During the elections I was pastor 
 of Adana in Armenia !^Iinor, and had to endorse our 
 members. The Adana member was an Armenian 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 145 
 
 named Krikor Bizdigian, the richest man of that city, 
 perhaps in Turkey; if still living, he must be ninety. 
 When the parliament was opened in Constantinople, 
 Sultan Murad presided, and told the members to dis- 
 cuss any questions freely. He said, " We are here for 
 the good of the country, and the empire needs to be re- 
 formed; how can we reform it ? " This was an entire 
 novelty; " government by discussion " is not the Orien- 
 tal way, and not the Oriental liking either. The Mo- 
 hammedan members were astonished, and they were 
 wrathful at the Christian members when the latter be- 
 gan to make free and able speeches. They said, " Are 
 we going to be governed by these heathen dogs, the 
 Christian hogs ? We will have no parliament where 
 every dog is free to open his mouth. We want the 
 good old ways of Mohammed." They were like mad 
 dogs, ready to bite. They hated the Christians, and 
 they hated the Sultan. They went to his younger 
 brother, the present Sultan, and told him his brother 
 Murad was insane. " He makes Christian dogs equal 
 to Mussulmen; he will ruin the country; you must 
 become Sultan to save the Turkish Empire." This 
 suited Abdul Aziz exactly; he headed a revolt, deposed 
 his good brother, dissolved the parliament, imprisoned 
 Murad in the palace where his uncle was assassinated, 
 and since then has been carrying the country to de- 
 struction. He is a perfect devil in all respects. A 
 devil can take the guise of an angel, and the Sultan has 
 the cunning to make himself appear a perfect gentle- 
 man, a benevolent and humane person. The devil 
 10 
 
146 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 can cheat most people, and so can the Sultan, all but 
 the native Christians in Turkey, to whom he shows 
 his horns, and hoofs, and tail. 
 
 The nauseous praise of the Sultan from travelers 
 and ministers reminds me of a Turkish brigand named 
 Guro, who infested Asia Minor a quarter of a century 
 ago. He robbed year after year all travelers who had 
 anything worth taking; but when he met tramps he 
 gave them money, and even a roasted lamb to eat now 
 and then. The tramps all praised him; he was a 
 benevolent, humane, kind-hearted man ; they had never 
 seen anything cruel or dishonest about him. So the 
 Sultan robs the Armenians, and uses their money to 
 feast the American ministers and decorate their wives. 
 Oh, but the Sultan sent money to the sufferers from 
 famine in the Western States of America; so generous 
 of him ! I am glad to say the money was refused. 
 All Americans who praise the Sultan are like the 
 tramps and the brigand. They are either ignorant 
 or in effect bribed. And then there is the affectation 
 of impartiality, so easy a cover for ignorance, coldness, 
 and laziness. You must say some good things about 
 a scoundrel, and some ill ones about a saint, or you 
 will be considered a partisan. You must not tell even 
 the truth, if the truth is all on one side. If the Sul- 
 tan massacres all the Christians in Turkey, why, there 
 are two sides to the question; perhaps the Christians 
 were not agreeable people, and if so, you cannot won- 
 der he has them exterminated by sword, and fire, and 
 torture, and rape ; it is really the only way he could get 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 147 
 
 rid of tliem. And then, he is king, and has a right to 
 do what he pleases with his own ; nobody has any busi- 
 ness to interfere. Of course a President could not 
 order three millions of people put to death by letting 
 loose all the savage Indians of the West on them to do 
 as they pleased with them, for the sake of making them 
 worship the Big Manitou ; but a Sultan — that is dif- 
 ferent, even though a Kurd is exactly as bad as an 
 Indian, and an Indian's knife does not cut throats any 
 more effectively, nor an Indian's tortures inflict more 
 unnamable horrors of suffering, nor an Indian's torch 
 burn houses any better, nor an Indian's beastly lust 
 defile women any worse. Are all the writers, then, 
 who have praised him ignorant or silly ? Yes; the 
 Sultan's deeds, proved by countless thousands of wit- 
 nesses, set forth in the consular reports, show that they 
 are. 
 
 As soon as Abdul Hamid had seized the throne, he 
 girded on the sword of Osman, which I will explain 
 later is equivalent to coronation. The keys of the 
 palace where Murad was imprisoned he keeps in his 
 pocket. The nominal ground of his imprisonment is 
 insanity, but he was not insane; it was his liberality 
 of mind, his greatness of heart, and his mild and kind 
 spirit. He was an exceptional Turk. Then Hamid 
 called Midhad Pasha to him, gave him $25,000, and 
 told him to leave the country and never come back. 
 The country was thus left without a single man of 
 any force of character and a large position combined. 
 After the death of Aziz the two greatest Turks were 
 
148 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Sultan Miirad and Midhad Pasha, and had Murad not 
 been hnprisoned, and Midhad banished, the Turkish 
 Empire would be an entirely different country, and 
 have a different future. 
 
 Midhad was finally recalled, but only to be mur- 
 dered. As the Sultan felt his position secure, he be- 
 gan to get rid of all men of superior character and ed- 
 ucation. Some he banished, some he imprisoned, 
 some he killed. But Midhad, as the greatest, was the 
 most obnoxious. He was of course not dispatched at 
 once. He was invited back, made governor of 
 Smyrna, given the highest emoluments, paid the 
 greatest honors; then one night he was suddenly sum- 
 moned to Constantinople by the Sultan. He knew it 
 was the death-call, and fled to the French consulate 
 for shelter, but the consul was afraid to protect him. 
 Finally he was taken by force to Constantinople, tried 
 before a tribunal of course packed by the Sultan, and 
 condemned to death. But the kind-hearted Sultan 
 commuted the death sentence to banishment and hard 
 labor for life, and quietly ordered the officers who 
 were going to take him to banishment to kill him in- 
 stead, which they did. 
 
 After he had got rid of all the great Turks, he ap- 
 pointed a host of ignorant and cruel ruffians as gov- 
 ernors, sub-governors, and generals; like Hadjii Has- 
 san Pasha, governor of Beshick-Tash near the Sultan's 
 palace, and whose business is to watch over the Sultan, 
 and who cannot read or write. He prefers ignorance, 
 because it means fanaticism, and he thinks cannot 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 149 
 
 plot against him. He dreads and liates education 
 and the educated, though he makes a show of en- 
 couraging them. He taxed the people for public 
 schools and put up magnificent buildings, but there 
 are few if any scholars in them; they were not built 
 for educational purposes, but for a show, and if neces- 
 sary, for barracks in the future. All the same, he 
 has his agents in Europe and America chant his 
 praises as a lover of learning. Parents will not send 
 their children to them anyway, for there are not com- 
 petent teachers in them; there are a very few ignorant 
 Mohammedan teachers, but even they are so corrupt 
 morally that no one dares trust his boy or girl with 
 them. The Sultan professed that people of all nation- 
 alities and religions would have equal privileges in 
 his public schools, therefore he ordered all to contribute 
 money for them. He raised the farmers' tax from one- 
 tenth to one-eighth of the crops on pretense of support- 
 ing the public schools. Of course he got most of it 
 from the Armenians, but there is not an Armenian 
 teacher or child in them. 
 
 Abdul Hamid is a stupendous hypocrite and char- 
 latan; he makes a great pretense of wisdom, religion, 
 and morality, and he has not a spark of either one. 
 His wisdom is only the animal cunning of a jealous, 
 cruel, suspicious brute, his morals simply do not exist, 
 and his religion is pure sham. It is often reported that 
 he is very religious. All that it amounts to is that 
 .every Friday (the Mohammedan Sunday) he goes to 
 the mosque to worship (a ceremony called selamlik). 
 
150 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 with several tliousand soldiers lining the roads from 
 the palace to the mosque to prevent his assassination, 
 of which he is in hourly fear; that once a year he goes 
 to the old Seraglio and pays tribute to the mantle of 
 Mohammed and other relics, kissing the slipper, coat, 
 and beard of the prophet; and he worships in the 
 mosque of St. Sophia as a conqueror. All this is 
 merely for show, to please the fanatic Mohammedans. 
 He advertises himself as a temperance man, too, but he 
 drinks to excess privately. In a word, he is thoroughly 
 false from top to bottom, pretending all good, and 
 doing all evil. 
 
 His officers of course imitate him; most of them 
 are absolute infidels, believing in nothing, but pro- 
 fessing great devotion. I knew a governor of this 
 stamp. He used to worship at the mosque, and even 
 ordered a hair of Mohammed's whiskers to be brought 
 from Constantinople to please the Mohammedan pop- 
 ulation. He never drank a drop of liquor in public, 
 but privately drank all he could hold. He had plenty 
 of fellows. For instance, Khalil Rifat Pasha, the 
 present Grand Yezir, appointed a few months ago, 
 has been governor of several different provinces, and 
 notorious in all as a great hypocrite and a thoroughly 
 corrupt man, full of lust and profligacy. When a 
 European or a native Christian of high position called 
 on him, he would treat the visitor with great polite- 
 ness, promise anything he asked, say, " take my word 
 of honor," and assure him of his entire sincerity; as 
 soon as he was gone, Khalil would curse him, and call 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 151 
 
 him a heathen dog, say to another Mohammedan, '^ See 
 how that Christian hog beheved what I said ! " and 
 keep not a word of his promises. 
 
 The Sultan is just the same. He is outwardly 
 very pleasant, very gentlemanly, very humane. He 
 will promise almost anything, but he will do nothing, 
 and he calls his enraptured guests dogs and hogs behind 
 their backs. Who knows how many times he has 
 called Lord Salisbury, the German Emperor, or the 
 Russian Czar, who are helping him to kill the Ar- 
 menians, heathen dogs ? See the promises of the 
 Sultan in 1878, in the Berlin Treaty, Article 61: — 
 " The Sublime Porte undertakes to carry out without 
 further delay the improvements and reforms de- 
 manded by local requirements in the provinces in- 
 habited by the Armenians, and to guarantee their 
 security against Circassians and Kurds. It will 
 periodically make known the steps taken to this ef- 
 fect to the powers, who will superintend their applica- 
 tion. '' These promises were made eighteen years 
 ago, and the reforms were to be made " without further 
 delay." His reforms have consisted in ordering Circas- 
 sians and Kurds to murder and plunder them. Since 
 the Berlin Treaty, the Sultan, calling the European 
 kings, emperors, and princes heathen hogs and Chris- 
 tian dogs, directly and indirectly has killed 200,000 
 Armenians. That was his reform. 
 
 When he seized the throne, Turkey had 40,000,000 
 people, and the Sultan thought his power was irresis- 
 tible. He let loose a horde of Circassians to massacre 
 
152 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 the Bulgarians, just as lie has let loose the Kurds to 
 massacre the Armenians. But the Bulgarians are 
 Slavs, and belong to the Greek Church, and the Rus- 
 sian Czar, Alexander, grandfather of the present Czar, 
 interfered in their favor. This excited the fears of 
 the other powers, and a Congress was held in Con- 
 stantinople to settle the question. Lord Salisbury 
 came from England, Count Ignatieff from Kussia, and 
 others from other parts of Europe, gathered in a beauti- 
 ful palace (now the admiralty) on the shores of the 
 Golden Horn of sweet waters, discussed the question, 
 and decided that the Bulgarian atrocities must stop, 
 Bulgaria be reformed and allowed to govern itself in- 
 ternally, and that Turkey must not fight Russia be- 
 cause it was too weak. This decision was communi- 
 cated to the Sultan, and he was furious: he would not 
 grant freedom or a government to Bulgaria, and he 
 was quite able to fight Russia. Finally he refused 
 flatly to accept the decision, and called a Turkish Con- 
 gress to give their " opinion. " Of course they gave what 
 was wanted, and pronounced in favor of a war with 
 Russia. A few were bold enough to disfavor it, and 
 the Sultan punished them. One of these was Hagop 
 Efendi Madteosian, the representative of the Protes- 
 tant Armenian community. Another was a thought- 
 ful, experienced Turk, and when the Sultan asked him 
 his reason for opposing the war, he related the follow- 
 ing parable : 
 
 " There w^as once a miser whom the king gave his 
 choice of three things : to eat ^ve pounds of raw onions 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 153 
 
 without bread at one meal, to receive five hundred 
 lashes on the bare back, or to pay $5,000. The miser 
 could not bear to lose so much money; he could not 
 endure such a flogging ; and he chose to eat the onions. 
 After eating a pound or so their bitterness and rank- 
 ness nauseated him, and he concluded to take the 
 whipping. He stood about a hundred lashes, and saw 
 that he should die under it; and decided to pay the 
 $5,000 after all." " i^ow," said the wise Turk, " this 
 illustrates what I mean. If you go to war with Russia, 
 you will sacrifice many thousands of soldiers, which is 
 a very bitter thing to digest ; then you will lose Euro- 
 pean Turkey, and finally you will have to pay millions 
 of dollars indemnity and ruin the country. I cannot 
 approve the war." The Sultan cried out in rage, 
 " Begone, you old crank! I will not listen to any more 
 foolish words from you. I shall conquer the Czar, 
 enlarge the country, and strengthen my kingdom." 
 He did go to war in 1876, was whipped by the Czar, 
 and lost almost the whole of European Turkey and 
 other parts of the empire, with" 22,000,000 people: 
 Roumania, Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, 
 part of Macedonia, part of Armenia, Cyprus, and after- 
 wards Egypt. He lost many thousands of soldiers 
 and millions of dollars, and besides has had to pay mil- 
 lions of dollars indemnity to Russia. And the Sultan 
 is called an " able man " and " wise ruler " ! These 
 things look like it. 
 
 After the war and the loss of the provinces, he en- 
 couraged the Mohammedan population of European 
 
154 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Turkey to emigrate to Asiatic Turkey, that ihey 
 might not live under Christians, and that they might 
 increase the number of Mohammedans in the Asiatic 
 part. The slaughter of the Armenians and the con- 
 fiscation of their property forms part of the scheme 
 to make room for them. Before his time the Arme- 
 nians in Armenia outnumbered the Turks; but the 
 massacres, the occupation of the farms and houses by 
 the savages let loose on them, and the emigration of 
 many more Armenians to Persia and Russia, have 
 greatly diminished their numbers. Of course they 
 are not permitted to emigrate, they simply fly. About 
 200,000 have actually perished. As to the forced 
 conversions, the Sultan does not care a particle for 
 Islamism, but wants to please the Moslem and finds 
 this an agreeable way to do it. As to the converts 
 from Islamism to Christianity, they are ordered to go 
 to Constantinople and are killed there. Hundreds 
 and thousands of the Mohammedan Turks are Chris- 
 tians in secret, but do not dare to confess it. These are 
 the ones who helped and protected the Armenians 
 during the recent atrocities. Some six years ago a 
 number of such professed the Christian religion pub- 
 licly; they were at once ordered to go to Constantinople 
 and every one of them was murdered by order of the 
 Sultan. When the representatives of the Christian 
 powers asked about them the Sultan denied that they 
 had come there at all. This was the method of their 
 assassination : The Sultan has several pleasure boats, 
 and in one of these boats he fitted up an air-tight room 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 155 
 
 with an air-pump; each night one of the converts was 
 taken from prison and put into this room, the air 
 was pumped out, and he was suffocated; then an iron 
 chain was hooked round him, and he was thrown into 
 the Bosphorus. One by one all of them were so mur- 
 dered. How did the author of this book discover the 
 secret ? Well, when in Constantinople, I had an in- 
 timate friend among the engineers; the engineer of 
 this death boat told my friend about it, and he told me. 
 And the Sultan is not simply a murderer by proxy 
 and official order; he is a murderer himself personally. 
 When in Constantinople, I learned from several au- 
 thoritative sources that he killed with his own revolver 
 several of his servants, for no cause whatever, but 
 merely from suspicion or rage. He always keeps a 
 revolver in his pocket, and whomever in the palace he 
 suspects, he shoots. He is a great coward. I heard 
 there that he has more than 10,000 detectives, at a 
 cost of several hundred thousand dollars a year. He 
 lives in Yildiz Palace, about two miles from the Bos- 
 phorus, on a hill on the European shore; he has built 
 new barracks, and keeps a large army around the 
 palace to protect him from assassination. His " wis- 
 dom " is merely care for his skin. He cares nothing 
 for the prosperity of the country ; it is steadily growing 
 poorer, while he is personally growing very rich. 
 That is one reason why he keeps an Armenian treas- 
 urer, that the Turks may not know his secrets. Even 
 the Turks are disgusted with him. I often used to 
 hear the Turks say, " God deliver us from the Sultan 
 
156 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 and send another master, even if he is the Czar of 
 Russia." His immense family costs him from $10,- 
 000,000 to $15,000,000 a year; it is the largest in the 
 world. I was told that it consists of 5,000 persons, 
 counting the eunuchs, the servants, and all. He has 
 about 500 wives; he did not marry them all; he in- 
 herited most of them. When a Sultan dies, his suc- 
 cessor has everything that belonged to him, including 
 his wives. And besides, he has to marry a new wife 
 every year, by the Mohammedan and governmental 
 law; he has no choice in the matter. That makes 
 twenty wives in the twenty years of Abdul Hamid's 
 reign. This is the system: He has at present nearly 
 one hundred young girls in the harem, supposed to be 
 the most beautiful in the world; they are presented to 
 him by the governor-generals, who get them from the 
 local governors, who get their offices by sending their I 
 
 superiors the finest looking girls, or the best Arabian 
 horses, and the governor-generals get theirs by pass- 
 ing the gifts on to the Sultan. That is the way to get 
 office in Turkey. You may be a murderer, a thief, 
 or an ignoramus, but you can be sure of an office 
 if you can furnish a handsome girl, or a fine stallion, 
 or a few thousand dollars. When I was pastor in 
 Marsovan, the local governor, Sudduc Bey, bought a 
 very pretty girl, and sent her to the governor-general 
 of Beshick-Tash in Constantinople, Hadji Hassan 
 Pash, the Sultan's special guard; he had got his office 
 from that functionary. As to how the girls are got, 
 it depends; if they are Mohammedan, they are bought; 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 157 
 
 if they are Christian they are seized by force, for the 
 Christians will not sell their daughters. Several 
 months ago Bahri Pasha, the governor-general of Van, 
 carried off several Armenian girls and presented them 
 to the Sultan, who decorated him for the service, and 
 appointed him Yali or governor-general of Adana, in 
 Armenia Minor. These girls are kept in the harem 
 of the Sultan. When the time comes to marry 
 another wife, he has the girls stand in a row, and 
 chooses one of them by covering her face with a silk 
 handkerchief; then she is taken by the eunuchs to 
 the quarters allotted to the Sultanas, and can have 
 separate servants, carriages, and eunuchs. The life 
 of the Sultan and his big family is the most miserable 
 in the world. The palace is a focus of discontent, 
 quarrels, jealousy, lust, and cruelty; in a word, it is a 
 perfect hell. The women have nothing to do, and 
 nothing to think of; they do not read, they have no 
 work, and no share even in household management; 
 they are idle, and unspeakably bored, and they do what 
 most idle people of both sexes do all over the world — 
 excite their nerves with sensual cravings, and then 
 try to satisfy them. They often manage to bring boys 
 to their quarters by stealth, and keep them there for 
 weeks for purposes of lust, and the Sultan knows 
 nothing about it; often they bribe their eunuchs, and 
 go to other places to satisfy their desires, and the Sul- 
 tan never hears of it. Aziz lost his life through an 
 intrigue of one of his wives. With so large and 
 exacting a family, it is no wonder the Sultan has no 
 
158 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 time or energy left for improving his administration. 
 He only finds a little time to send telegrams to the 
 governors to exterminate the Armenians. 
 
 THE SULTANATE AND ITS POWERS. 
 There is no coronation in Turkey; instead the 
 Sultans gird on the sword of Osman, the founder of the 
 Ottoman Dynasty, which is kept in the mosque of 
 Ayoob, in Constantinople. When a Sultan is pro- 
 claimed, he goes to that mosque with great pomp, and 
 all the members of the Sublime Porte, the civil of- 
 ficers, the generals, commanders, soldiers, patriarchs 
 of different religions, and the Sheik-ul-Islam, the 
 Mohammedan religious head, follow him. But no 
 Christians enter that holy place, as it is forbidden 
 them. After impressive service, the chief of the der- 
 vishes of the order of Mevlair girds the Sultan with 
 the sword; then he is officially recognized as emperor. 
 Then, as God's will be done. Sultan's will be done, 
 because the Sultan represents God in heaven, Moham- 
 med in Paradise, Osman on the earth. He has three 
 offices, God's office, Mohammed's office, Osman's of- 
 fice. He is as infallible as the Pope of Rome, and 
 temporally everything belongs to him without excep- 
 tion, men, women, children, money, property, just as 
 everything belongs to God. A Turkish proverb says, 
 " Mai, jan, erz, Padishahin dir " (Property, soul, 
 and virtue belong to the Sultan). He can claim any 
 man's wife for his enjoyment at any time; his son, or 
 his daughter, or his money, or his property of any 
 sort; there is no use refusing — a man does not own 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 159 
 
 iiimself, or his wife, or his children; the Sultan owns 
 them all, and it is only by his grace that he permits 
 his subjects to have anything, and he can resume it at 
 any time, for half an hour, or forever. Besides, any- 
 body's head would come off that refused. If the Sul- 
 tan asks a millionaire in Constantinople to send him 
 half his wealth, the millionaire must not refuse; he 
 himself is simply a steward; if the Sultan wants it all 
 it must go to him, and the millionaire must beg bread 
 for a living. At the same time he must praise the 
 Sultan, because the Sultan is God on earth. If he 
 refuses to send his wife or daughter to the Sultan's 
 bed, or his son or money for whatever uses they are 
 wanted to supply, the Sultan has a right to kill him, 
 and take all his possessions by force, because the man 
 was not a faithful slave. 
 
 " But I cannot believe this," says the American in 
 his free, peaceful country. " It is not natural. How 
 can a man be considered as God, owning everything, 
 not in a spiritual sense, but in a very material, pecun- 
 iary, and male sense ? " 
 
 Go to Turkey, get naturalized there, become a 
 Turkish subject, and you will understand it fully, and 
 perhaps shockingly. Of course, if you go as an Amer- 
 ican citizen, with plenty of money, travel under the 
 escort of soldiers, or Zapties, get presented by the 
 American minister to the Sultan, are entertained in 
 the palace, and receive handsome presents, you will 
 not understand it at all ; very likely not believe it ; you 
 may come home and praise the Sultan like the rest. 
 
160 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Tlie natural question is, I know, " Do the Sultans, 
 any of them, carry this theory into practice ? Has 
 the present Sultan ? " Yes; and not once or twice, 
 but thousands of times. To be sure, they do not go in 
 person on such errands; they depute their officers and 
 soldiers to do what they wish. I have shown how the 
 history of the Armenians illustrates it, in the 
 seizure of their property, the forced conversion 
 of their boys into troops to fight against their parents, 
 the appropriation of their wives and daughters, to be 
 given to the Sultan. As to the present Sultan, I have 
 already spoken of Bahri Pasha's exploit in carrying off 
 by force several Armenian young brides, and girls, 
 and presenting them to the Sultan, and his being dec- 
 orated and promoted for it. While on his way, he 
 had to pass through Trebizond, and the Armenians 
 fired on him to rescue the women, but failed. They 
 forgot that all women belong to the Sultan, and they 
 made a mistake in firing on one of his officers. He 
 at once ordered all the Armenians in Trebizond to be 
 slaughtered. Some of the richest of the nation lived 
 there; every penny was taken from them, most of 
 them were killed, and their wives and children, 
 and those of them who survived are begging bread. 
 And all through Armenia the girls and young brides 
 are being looked over to pick out the best looking ones 
 for the Sultan's harem. 
 
 Once for all, Armenia is not America. The 
 Turks, the Kurds, the Circassians, the Georgians, 
 though they may be like Americans, are like 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 161 
 
 American Indians only. The Sultan is not a 
 president, and his divine right to kill any man, appro- 
 priate any property, or enjoy any woman, is not like 
 the Constitution of the United States. People who 
 think that the Sultan would not do or be allowed to do 
 such things because no ruler they are familiar with 
 does them, that it is impossible they can happen in Ar- 
 menia because they could not happen in America, that 
 the Armenians must have provoked them in some way, 
 because it is hard to believe any ruler could do so in 
 pure wantonness or from deliberate policy, are reason- 
 ing from wrong premises. They did happen, and are 
 happening, — see the consular reports ; were perfectly 
 unprovoked, — see the plentiful proofs that the Ar- 
 menians carry no arms, and cannot even defend them- 
 selves from murder, or their wives from dishonor 
 before their eyes. Why it is done, and how much 
 more is to be done, I have explained repeatedly. 
 
 THE SUBLIME PORTE AND THE MOHAMMEDAN 
 RELIGION. 
 
 The Sublime Porte, or in Turkish Babi-Ali, is the 
 cabinet of the Turkish government, as follows: — 
 
 1. The Grand Yezir, or Prime Minister. 
 
 2. The Minister of the Interior. 
 
 3. The Minister of Foreign Affairs. 
 
 4. The Superintendent of the Cabinet Council. 
 
 5. The Commander-in-chief, or Minister of War. 
 
 6. The Minister of the ^N'avy. 
 
 7. The Minister of Finance. 
 
 11 
 
162 ARI^IENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 8. The Minister of Commerce and Public Buildings. 
 
 9. The Minister of Sacred Properties. 
 
 10. The Minister of Education. 
 
 11. The Sheik-ul-Islam, or religious head. 
 
 There is no election in Turkey; all officers are 
 appointed by the Sultan, who can dismiss any of them 
 at any time, and appoint some one else, and I have 
 already explained why he almost always appoints bad 
 ones. The Sublime Porte has no power to decide any- 
 thing; it is simply a farce council to cheat the Euro- 
 pean powers; a dumb tool in the hands of the Sultan. 
 Por instance, the Sultan calls the Grand Yezir, the 
 president of the Sublime Porte, into his presence, and 
 tells him such a question is to be discussed in such a 
 way, and this or that conclusion reached. ^^ Very 
 well, my Lord and Master," says the Grand Vezir; 
 he goes to the Sublime Porte palace, and says to the 
 council: " To-day I was permitted to come into the 
 presence of His Majesty the Sultan, and he instructed 
 me that I must bring such a question before you, 
 and after we discuss it in such a manner, we must 
 come to such a decision.'' Then all of them stand up 
 and say, " Sultan's will be done," and that is all; 
 their " decision " is announced to the Sultan, and he 
 " sanctions " it. There is no discussion for days or 
 weeks, as in England or here ; it is all cut short. The 
 Sublime Porte can decide any question in a few min- 
 utes. This is the sort of thing Mr. Carlyle wanted. 
 You have seen the beautiful effects of it. 
 
 The question naturally arises, Why does the Sul- 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 163 
 
 tan keep a Sublime Porte, since he decides everything 
 himself ? 
 
 There are three reasons. 
 
 First, it is the old custom. All the other Sultans 
 have had one, and he might offend the Turks if he 
 abolished it. 
 
 Second, as the Sultan can do no wrong, there must 
 be somebody else to lay blame on. He is the repre- 
 sentative of God and Prophet, Mohammed. If there 
 is any mistake in any decision, he is not responsible 
 for it; the Sublime Porte is responsible. 
 
 Third, because he has relations with the European 
 powers, and if any decision needs to be reversed, it 
 can be if it is that of the Sublime Porte; but if it 
 were the personal decision of the Sultan it could not 
 be changed, because he is considered immutable, just 
 as God is. 
 
 When people read about the Sublime Porte after 
 this, I hope they will understand that there is not 
 really any Su.b]im,e Porte; that it is a mere name, an 
 echo, a farce, a show to bunco the world with. 
 
 Some newspaper and other writers think it is 
 " impartial " to say that the Sultan means well, but he 
 has a " corrupt ministry " ; that it is the Sublime Porte 
 that ruins the Turkish Empire; if it were left to the 
 Sultan, he would reform the country ; he would not let 
 ihe Armenians be massacred. Put no faith in such 
 ignorant rubbish. The Sultan dictates everything; 
 and if any minister has the sense and courage to sug- 
 gest any improvement, the Sultan dismisses him, say- 
 
164 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 ing that it is his own business to consider the improve- 
 ments of the country and not that of any one else. The 
 governors would not dare to order the Kurds and the 
 Turks to wreak their worst and vilest will on the Ar- 
 menians without direct orders from the Sultan. The 
 Sultan originates all these cruelties. The recent 
 Grand Yezir, Said Pasha, at one time was a very 
 decent Turk. When he differed with the Sultan 
 about massacreing the .Araienians, the Sultan threat- 
 ened to kill him, and he had to fly to the English 
 embassy for protection. Murad Bey was another 
 good Turk who remonstrated against the cruelties ; his 
 life was threatened, and he fled to Europe; now he is 
 in Egypt, denouncing the Sultan in the press and in 
 letters. The Sultan sentenced him to death, and 
 asked the British government to hand him over to 
 the Turkish oflicers; but the representative of the Brit- 
 ish government in Cairo refused. Just before the 
 Armenian atrocities in Constantinople, the members 
 of the Sublime Porte tried to have the Armenian 
 grievances redressed, and the people pacified ; the Sul- 
 tan would have no such pottering, and ordered the sol- 
 diers to kill the Armenians in the streets. But this 
 was a rare piece of virtue in the Porte. Mostly they 
 are as bad as the Sultan himself, for he appoints men 
 of his own stripe. Good men would not be useful 
 tools. The Sultan has another trick of management; 
 before making any one a member of the Porte, he 
 tries to find out whether he is a friend to any of the 
 ministers already in; if so, he will not appoint him. 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 165 
 
 On the other hand, if the man happens to be an 
 enemy to one of the members, he is ahiiost sure of 
 appointment. The Sublime Porte, therefore, is a 
 group of mutual enemies, hating one another, and 
 ready to betray one another at any time. He thinks 
 if they are friendly, they may unite and depose him 
 some day. Besides this, there are more detectives in 
 the Sublime Porte, watching the ministers on behalf 
 of the Sultan, than there are members. They keep 
 the Sultan informed about the situation. If any min- 
 ister or officer acts contrary to the wishes of the Sul- 
 tan, he is marked for death. 
 
 THE SHEIK-UL-ISLAM. 
 
 Sheik-ul-Islam means chief of Islam — the Mo- 
 hammedan religion. His office is solely religious; 
 he has nothing to do with politics. He sees that the 
 mosques and priests are kept in order, and the reli- 
 gious services properly conducted ; and there are many 
 questions among the Mohammedans which are set- 
 tled without going to a magistrate, by the Sheik-ul- 
 Islam, or by his deputies, called Muf tees. These Muf- 
 tees can be found in every city in Turkey. The Sheik- 
 ul-Islam and his representatives issue Fetvas (religious 
 decrees) according to the Koran. 
 
 There is no inconsistency between this and what I 
 have said before about the Sultan being the repre- 
 sentative of Mohammed, and therefore the chief of 
 his religion. Both the Sultan and the Sheik-ul-Islam 
 are the heads of it, just as the Greek emperor and the 
 Patriarch were of the Greek church, and the relative 
 
166 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 position is about the same. The Sheik-ul-Islam is 
 the special head of the ecclesiastical organization. 
 The Sultan appoints him, but once appointed, if he is 
 insubordinate and opposes the Sultan, the latter can- 
 not suppress or replace him without grave scandal to 
 the Mohammedan world. It is like Henry II and 
 Becket; it is easier to make a head of a church than 
 to rule him afterwards. It is like the Emperors and 
 the Popes in the Middle Ages; and as with them, some- 
 times the Sheik-ul-Islam joins with political officers to 
 depose the Sultan, and his fetva, or decree, makes it 
 legal. When Abdul Aziz was deposed, the then 
 Sheik-ul-Islam, Khairollah Effendi, issued the fetva 
 for it, reluctantly, for Heussein Avni Pasha forced 
 him to do it under threat of death. As Heussein's 
 own head was in immediate peril, he had no scruples 
 about the Sheik-ul-Islam's. Every fetva has two 
 questions and one answer. A case is set forth; after 
 a brief discussion the question Olourni (To be ?) and 
 Olmazmi (Not to be ?) are asked, and the answer 
 is given as either Olour or Olmaz (To be, or ^tvTot to 
 be). The fetva which Heussein forced the Sheik-ul- 
 Islam to sign was something like this: — " If a Sultan 
 should prove to be unworthy to govern his people, is 
 it necessary to uphold him or not ? '' The answer 
 was Olmaz, and Abdul Aziz was deposed. 
 
 MOHAMMEDANISM AND THE INTERNAL STATE OF 
 
 TURKEY. 
 
 ITobody who has not lived in Turkey can realize 
 how hopeless, almost self -contradictory, it is to talk 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 167 
 
 of " reforming " Turkey. It could not be reformed 
 and be Mohammedan Turkey; the lack of reform or 
 power of reform is just what makes it what it is. The 
 root of the evil is Mohammedanism itself; it is em- 
 bodied social stagnation, corruption, ultimate ruin. 
 Neither the Sultan nor the Turks can improve the 
 state of the Empire, even if they wished. The usual 
 " broad-minded " statements about Mohammed and 
 his religion are simply elaborations of ignorance, made 
 up out of men's own minds, and what they think must 
 be true. It is customary for waiters to talk in 
 this fashion : — " Mohammedanism is a half-way 
 house to Christianity; Mohammed converted the hea- 
 then Arabs to a belief in the true God. Mohammed 
 established a great religion and a great Empire," etc., 
 etc. There is no truth in this, for all its plausible 
 sound. Mohammedanism is not even on the road 
 to Christianity; and Arabia, Asia Minor, and Pales- 
 tine were all much better off before the Mohammedan 
 conquest than after it. Buddhism and Brahmanism 
 are better religions than Mohammedanism. The 
 Chinese, the Japanese, the people of India are much 
 better than the Turks. The Chinese Emperor and 
 the Japanese Mikado are far better men than the Mo- 
 hammedan Sultan. The heathen religions rear bet- 
 ter men than Mohammedanism. The Mongols are 
 more humane and sympathetic than the Turks. Hea- 
 thenism at its worst, though a low form of religion, is 
 really a form of religion; but Mohammedanism is 
 not a religion at all. Then what is it ? It is a system 
 
168 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 of imposture and false pretense, and of lives of human 
 lust and cruelty. Mohammed practiced all these, 
 and his successors have done the same, and taught the 
 same ever since; and the system means just that now, 
 and nothing else. There is neither love nor sympa- 
 thy, manliness nor humanity in Mohammedanism. 
 Can a system lacking all these be considered a religion? 
 This is the substance of Mohammed's teachings: — 
 ^' Love your fellow believers, hate and slay all who 
 refuse to accept your religion. Marry as many wives 
 as you can afford; if you can afford but one do not 
 repine, for you shall have seven thousand to enjoy 
 in Paradise. If you conquer a country, show no 
 mercy to the people unless they embrace Islam; if 
 they refuse, either kill them or make slaves of them." 
 What sort of reforms can you expect in Armenia, or in 
 Turkey, when the very religion that is to make people 
 better, inculcates such principles ? If one does not 
 know a language he cannot speak it; if he has not a 
 principle he will not practice it; how can the Sultan, 
 a vicious man to begin with, trained in a religion cal- 
 culated to make a cruel and licentious animal even out 
 of a decent man, reform anything ? His very religion 
 forbids it; he cares nothing for the religion when it 
 stands in his way, but he will follow its injunctions to 
 please the Mohammedans, especially when they grat- 
 ify and justify his worst passions. 
 
 I shall be asked if the Mohammedans do not be- 
 lieve in one God, and the same God as the Christian; 
 and if that does not make it a religion, and very near 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 169 
 
 that of Christians. Yes, they do; and so do the devils. 
 That is what Mohammedanism is, the rehgion of 
 devils. Most of the Turkish conversation consists of 
 oaths and smut. I do not mean among the common 
 people — theirs is nothing else — but of the educated 
 upper classes, their scholars, teachers, governors, and 
 priests. I came in contact with them for years, and 
 I hated to listen to them, their talk was so full of curs- 
 ing and filth. You never see the fruits of the spirit 
 in them; only the fruits of the flesh. They do not 
 understand what spiritual life is ; with them all is sense, 
 — eating and drinking, finery and lust, — lust above 
 all, everywhere and always, like cattle. They seem 
 never able to forget sex and its uses. Some people 
 think the climate makes the Turks lazy; it is 
 enough on that point to say that Constantinople is 
 almost exactly in the same latitude as 'New York, and 
 Smyrna as St. Louis. The Turkish climate is a tem- 
 perate and salubrious one, with no greater extremes of 
 temperature than the United States; not tropical or 
 enervating. Nor is it their race that makes the Turks 
 lazy; they were not so at the outset. It is their reli- 
 gion and the habits it breeds. Their minds and 
 bodies are enervated by the unwholesome nervous 
 excitation of lust, their energies further sapped by a 
 falsehood that leaves no room for aspiration, their 
 vanity as a military caste in not working takes all the 
 spirit of manly enterprise out of them. If the cli- 
 mate enervates the Turks, why does it not the Chris- 
 tians ? In the very same cities you find the Chris- 
 
170 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 tians rich, enterprising, full of energy ; tlie Turks poor, 
 ignorant, unambitious, and lazy. The religion makes 
 all the difference. Christianity teaches purity, sym- 
 pathy, and industry; Mohammedanism teaches im- 
 purity, hate, and sloth. The pure life of the Chris- 
 tian conserves all the energies; the hopes of Christian- 
 ity give vigor and endurance. The promise of each 
 for the future gives the clue to the history of each; 
 the Christian heaven of unity with God, the Moham- 
 medan heaven of a lot of street dogs and sluts. 
 
 Here I must comment on the extraordinary state- 
 ment of Alexander Webb, at the Parliament of Re- 
 ligions in Chicago. Mr. Webb was an American 
 consul in the East, and became a convert to Moham- 
 medanism, or professes to have done so; it is not very 
 hard to guess what part of that so-called religion at- 
 tracted him. He said the religion of Mohammed 
 teaches the Fatherhood of God, and the Brotherhood 
 of Humanity. IN^ow, as a fact, Mohammedans believe 
 in neither one. As to God, they believe he is a mon- 
 arch, and that no one can approach him ; they have the 
 same idea the Jews had. " Our Father who art in 
 Heaven " is a purely Christian aspiration, not that 
 of any other religion on earth ; it is Christianity alone 
 that teaches the Fatherhood of God. And Moham- 
 medans directly ridicule the idea of God the Father, or 
 of a Son of God. They say God is not married, and 
 cannot be a father; and that when they go to heaven 
 they will not be in his presence, nor wish to be, but will 
 have a separate heaven, to enjoy their wives in. They 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 171 
 
 look at everything from a sexual or sensual stand- 
 point. As to brotherhood, there is no such thing in 
 Mohammedanism; even sons of the same mother are 
 not brothers in feeling. A Mohammedan has not con- 
 fidence enough, even in his brother, to show his wives to 
 him, and even in heaven they will have to live in dif- 
 ferent places on account of their wives. How can 
 there be brotherhood without love or purity ? And 
 we have seen and know what the '^ brotherhood " of 
 Mohammedans to other nations and religions is; there 
 can be no relations whatever but of master and slave, 
 or murderer and corpse, or violator and victim. The 
 impudence of this talk of brotherhood is fathomless. 
 
 And then he said he was proud to be a convert to 
 Islam, because that meant believing in purity ! This 
 is more outrageously impudent still. His ideal of 
 purity must be a curious one if he finds more in Mo- 
 hammedanism than in Christianity; in a religion with 
 a heaven stuffed with concubines "than in one where 
 even earth is sprinkled with nuns; in one that makes 
 Titanic lust its crowning reward, as if men were so 
 feeble in sexual desires that they needed to be stim- 
 ulated, than in one which makes chastity its key-note, 
 and pronounces the very coveting of more than one 
 "vvife a spiritual adultery; in one that prescribes poly- 
 gamy (that is, keeping erotic turbulence stirred up 
 much oftener and longer than it naturally would be), 
 than in one that allows but one wife, and smiles on 
 getting along without that ; in one whose devotees are 
 ashamed of foul language, and even of foul thoughts, 
 
172 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 than in one whose devotees are rank and rotten with 
 lustful ideas and talk to correspond. 
 
 The whole Mohammedan system is designed to 
 make the gratification of lust as easy and plentiful 
 as possible short of a promiscuity that would lead 
 to civil anarchy. A Mohammedan can divorce his 
 wife any time he pleases by paying back her dower, 
 and marry another and do likewise; every week, or 
 (lay if he sees fit, and he can remarry and redivorce 
 the first one as often as he pleases. It is like trading 
 horses; as little sentiment or morality in one as the 
 other ; the slightest possible regulation of sheer animal 
 desire. There is, however, one form or divorce which 
 is complete, and does not allow of remarriage until 
 another marriage has intervened; that is called the 
 achden docuza (three to nine) divorce, from the terms 
 the husband uses in doing it, "I divorce you three to 
 nine.'^ l^obody knows what it means or meant. 
 After this, if he wants his wife back, he must get 
 somebody else to marry and divorce her regularly; 
 and as this is perilous, because the second husband after 
 marrying her may take a notion to keep her, or any- 
 way keep her much longer than the first one relishes, 
 or demand a large sum of money, the usual plan is 
 to fix on a very poor man, or a blind beggar (preferably 
 blind, so that he cannot see the wife, and be so 
 charmed by her beauties that he will wish to keep her), 
 get him to become the woman's husband for a few 
 days, and then pay him something to divorce her. 
 Then the first can marry her again if he chooses. 
 
RULERS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 173 
 
 There are many more specimens of Mohamme- 
 dan ^^ purity " too shameful to write, and too shame- 
 ful to read; I cannot soil the paper with them. Doubt- 
 less they are part of Mr. Webb's pride in being a Mo- 
 hammedan. But I must mention one more engine of 
 corruption which lies at the very root of Mohamme- 
 danism itself: the pilgrimage to Mecca, to the birth- 
 place of Mohammed in Arabia. Once a year Mo- 
 hammedan pilgrims from every quarter of the world 
 go to Mecca to pay homage to their beloved prophet; 
 averaging a million a year. It is their duty to sac- 
 rifice animals there, and about a million are so sac- 
 rificed. This is done on the hills which surround the 
 great temple, the greatest mosque in the world. It 
 is a square building, which covers several acres of 
 land. Just in the cluster is the Holy Well, called 
 Zemzem. Mohammedans believe that if they drink 
 of that water, hell-fire cannot burn them, and every 
 pilgrim does so; then they begin to die from cholera 
 to the tune of fifty thousand a year or so, for the well 
 is a mere cesspool. You see, after cutting the throats 
 of the animals, they leave the filth and blood just as 
 they are, for the Mohammedan religion does not allow 
 the sacrifice to be touched. The sandy soil absorbs 
 this putrid filth, which leaches into the well. But it 
 is a great merit to die on the spot where Mohammed 
 was born ; one goes straight to heaven if he does. That 
 is not the worst, however; they fill bottles with that 
 water, and carry it to their families, and friends 
 throughout the Turkish Empire, Persia, and India, 
 from which cholera is spread abroad over the world. 
 
174 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 The pilgrims do not take their wives as far as the 
 birthplace of Mohammed, but leave them half-way, 
 and on reaching Mecca they marry temporarily. 
 About 20,000 prostitutes there make a business of 
 being short-term wives of the pilgrims, getting $5 
 to $25 from each, and being his wife for anywhere 
 from a day to a fortnight, so that each woman marries 
 from fifty to a hundred pilgrims a year. This is not 
 prostitution; it is religion — and Mohammedan 
 " purity." Mecca is considered the most holy spot 
 on earth by Mohammedans; but it is the most corrupt 
 spot. It is a hell. And the Mohammedan Paradise 
 is worse than Mecca. 
 
 In one word, Mohammedans have no right to exist, 
 politically, socially, or religiously. In the first they 
 have wrought nothing but ruin; in the second nothing 
 but corruption; in the third nothing but devilishness. 
 They are working nothing else now in either of the 
 three. They have never built up anything; they are 
 pure destroyers. Anything which is built in any Mo- 
 hammedan country is built both by Christian money 
 and by Christian architects; Mohammedans have nei- 
 ther the money, the architects, nor the sense. The 
 day one becomes a Mohammedan he loses his intellect, 
 his skill, and his common sense. Mohammedanism is a 
 poison fatal to any good gifts or graces ; it cultivates in 
 liim falsehood, cruelty, and lust. It was sent by God 
 for a curse to the Christians; as a punishment, just as 
 the Philistines were sent to the people of Israel. 
 
V. 
 
 THE GKEAT POWERS A:N^D THE ARME- 
 OTA^ QUESTIO^L 
 
 There was no Armenian question till the time 
 of the present Sultan; under xlbdul Aziz, whatever 
 his faults as a ruler or a man, the Armenians prospered 
 well, and though the whole system of administration 
 is bad, corrupt, and uncertain, they had no special 
 grievance as a race to complain of. I have already 
 referred to Abdul Hamid's usurpation, his Bulgarian 
 atrocities, his famous war against Russia, and the 
 Congress in Berlin in which the powers ordered him 
 to execute reforms in Armenia, and report to them, 
 and the Sultan signed the treaty promising to do it. 
 This was in 18 78. The Sultan lost no time in violat- 
 ing the treaty, and not only so, but in acting grossly 
 contrary to it. He called in Circassians and Kurds to 
 settle in the midst of Armenians, and confiscated Ar- 
 menian lands for them to settle on. The Armenians 
 were far worse off than before the treaty ; but foolishly 
 depending on the powers, they did not try to arm 
 themselves for the future. They have had plenty of 
 chance to repent in blood and tears, agony and shame, 
 their faith that Christian nations would not ignore a 
 
 solemn obligation, voluntarily entered into, to save 
 
 (175) 
 
176 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 a whole people from being exterminated by fire and 
 Bword. England was the worst of these sinners, for 
 she had taken on special obligations by a separate 
 treaty, and forced those who would have taken the 
 Sultan by the throat to let go. 
 
 THE ANGLO-TURKISH CONVENTION. 
 
 This took place at the same time as the Berlin 
 Congress; it was simply between Turkey and Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Article I. " If Batoum, Ardahan, Kars, or any of them 
 shall be retained by Russia, and if any attempt shall be 
 made at any future time by Russia to take possession of 
 any further territory of His Imperial Majesty, the Sultan, in 
 Asia, as fixed by the Definitive Treaty of Peace, England 
 engages to join His Imperial Majesty, the Sultan, in defend- 
 ing them by force of arms. 
 
 " In return, His Imperial Majesty, the Sultan, promises 
 England to introduce necessary reforms, to be agreed upon 
 later between the two powers, into the government and for 
 the protection of the Christian and other subjects of the 
 Porte in these territories; and in order to enable England to 
 make necessary provisions for executing her engagement. 
 His Imperial Majesty, the Sultan, further consents to assign 
 the Island of Cyprus to be occupied and administered by 
 England. 
 
 Article TIL " If Russia restores to Turkey Kars and the 
 other conquests made by her in Armenia during the last war, 
 the Island of Cyprus will be evacuated by England, and the 
 convention of the 4th of June, 1878, will be at an end." 
 
 When England was preparing this private treaty, 
 the English fleet was on the Sea of Marmora, at the 
 gate of the Bosphorus, threatening Russia, to make 
 her withdraw her soldiers from the gates of Constanti- 
 
THE GREAT POWERS AND ARMENIA. 177 
 
 nople, for the conquering Russian army had reached 
 the suburbs, and encamped at San Stefano, only eight 
 or ten miles away. But for England, Russia would 
 have captured Constantinople, and kept it. But Eng- 
 land backed Turkey, and the other powers backed 
 England, and Russia reluctantly withdrew her troops. 
 But Russia has never forgiven England for it; and if 
 England wishes to help the Armenians, no matter 
 how many are massacred, Russia will help Turkey, 
 while the others side with neither. As to there ever 
 being a European concert to reform Armenia, a pleas- 
 ant dream which has deluded many thousands, I have 
 always laughed at it, and I laugh at it still. The 
 powers will never act together for any such purpose. 
 It is not " practical politics " to think of it. The real 
 center of action is not Germany or Russia, but Eng- 
 land, for several reasons. One is that London is the 
 money capital of the world. Money rules; money 
 buys force. The richest nation is the strongest. 
 What does Lombard street say ? is the vital question. 
 The second is her navy, the strongest in the world; 
 stronger that that of any other two nations combined ; 
 perhaps in actual fight a match for all combined. The 
 third is that her possessions are everywhere; she is a 
 local power in every quarter of the globe; she has to 
 pass by everybody's doors in managing her colonies. 
 So I will begin with England. 
 
 ENGLAND AND THE ARMENIAN QUESTION. 
 
 If England had wished to solve this question, she 
 
 could have done it long ago; but she never cared to. 
 12 
 
178 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 When Mr. Gladstone was in power, he tried to do 
 it, but his Cabinet overbore him. He did, however, 
 show by isolated cases what power England had if she 
 chose to exercise it. After I was banished by the 
 Turkish government, two native Christian ministers 
 supplied my pulpit. They were sentenced to death 
 on a false charge, but Gladstone threatened the Sul- 
 tan, and the latter commuted the sentence to ban- 
 ishment. These ministers were Professors Thoum- 
 aian and Kayayian, who are now in England with 
 their families. What could be done on a small scale 
 could be done on a large one. I will give here some 
 of the speeches of Gladstone on the Armenian ques- 
 tion; then compare Lord Salisbury with him and his 
 policy. 
 
 W. E. Gladstone. 
 
 He assails Turkey's Intolerable Misgovernment and Emphasizes the 
 Value of Impartial American Testimony. 
 
 [By Cable to The New York Herald.] 
 
 London, Aug. 6, 1895. — A pro- American meet- 
 ing, presided over by the Duke of Westminster, was 
 held at Chester this afternoon. Mr. Gladstone was 
 among those present, and upon entering the hall was 
 received with great enthusiasm. 
 
 In addressing the meeting, Mr. Gladstone said he 
 had attended rather to meet the expectation that he 
 would be present than because he had any important 
 contribution to make to the discussion of the subject 
 under consideration. The question before the meet- 
 ing, he said, was not a party question, neither was it 
 strictly a religious question, although the sufferers, on 
 whose behalf the meeting was called, were Christians. 
 
THE GREAT POWERS AND ARMENIA. 179 
 
 The evil arose from the fact that the sufferers were 
 •under an intolerably bad government — one of the 
 worst, in fact, that ever existed. A resolution would 
 be proposed presenting, with justice and firmness, the 
 true view of the matter. Mr. Gladstone added that 
 as America had no political interest in the Levant her 
 witnesses were doubly entitled to credit. 
 
 Important Treaty Provisions. 
 
 The treaty of 1856, Mr. Gladstone continued, 
 gave the powers the right to march into Armenia and 
 take the government of the countr}^ out of the hands 
 of Turkey, and under the treaty of 1878 the Sultan 
 Avas bound to carry out reforms. The ex-Premier 
 made three proposals : — First, that the demands of 
 the powers should be moderate ; second, that no prom- 
 ises of the Turkish authorities should be accepted ; and 
 third, that the powers should not fear the word " coer- 
 cion." 
 
 " We have reached a critical position," said Mr. 
 Gladstone, in conclusion, '' and the honor of the pow- 
 ers is pledged to the institution of reforms in Ar- 
 menia." 
 
 A resolution was then proposed expressing the 
 conviction that the government would have the sup- 
 port of the entire nation in any measures it might 
 adopt to secure in Armenia reforms guaranteeing to 
 the inhabitants safety of life, honor, religion, and 
 property, and that no reforms can be effected which 
 are not placed under the continuous control of the 
 great powers of Europe. The resolution was sec- 
 onded by the Kev. Canon Malcolm MacCoU, and was 
 adopted. 
 
180 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Says Baseness and Villany Have Beached a Climax in Turkey's 
 Treatment of Armenia. 
 
 [From The New York Herald.] 
 
 London, Dec. 27, 1895. — Murad Bey, formerly 
 Ottoman Commissioner of the Turkish debt, who re- 
 cently fled from Constantinople to Paris, sent to Mr. 
 Gladstone a few days ago a pamphlet which he had 
 published in Paris, entitled ^^ The Yildiz Palace and 
 the Sublime Porte," with a view to enlightening public 
 opinion on Turkish affairs. In the course of his reply 
 acknowledging the receipt of the pamphlet, Mr. 
 Gladstone disavowed any feeling of enmity toward the 
 Turks and Mussulmans generally. He said: — ^'I 
 have felt it my duty to make it knoAvn that the Mo- 
 hammedans, including the Turks, suffer from the bad 
 government of the Sultan. 1 have heartily wished 
 success to every effort made toward ending the great 
 evil. Still, Turks and other Mohammedans are not, 
 so far as I know, plundered, raped, murdered, starved, 
 and burned; but this is the treatment that the Sultan 
 knowingly deals out to his Armenian subjects daily. 
 There are degrees of suffering, degrees of baseness 
 and villany among men, and both seem to have 
 reached their climax in the case of Armenia." 
 
 His Masterly Speech in Chester Be-enforced with a letter to a 
 
 Turk. 
 [From The New York Sun.] 
 
 London, Aug. 10. — -Once more have the wonder- 
 ful power and the true greatness of England's Grand 
 Old Man been demonstrated in the remarkable re- 
 vival of popular interest in the fate of Armenia. The 
 whole nation is marveling over his great Speech at 
 Chester, and there are no words, even among those 
 who have always been his political opponents, save 
 
THE GREAT POWERS AND ARMENIA. I8l 
 
 those of sympathy and admiration. E'obody is any 
 longer foolish enough to deny the main features of 
 the fearful atrocities in Armenia, and there is no possi- 
 ble doubt of the accuracy of the latest reports that 
 thousands near the scene of the massacres are per- 
 ishing of starvation. 
 
 The only protest against Mr. Gladstone's speech 
 has been a long letter from Khalef Khalid, a con- 
 spicuous Turk, who asks the Grand Old Man why 
 he hates and denounces the Turks so indiscriminately, 
 when as many and as great outrages against the Mo- 
 hammedans have been perpetrated by Christians as 
 Avere ever committed by the subjects of Islam. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's reply was made public to-day. It 
 is one of the most pointed epistles the old man ever 
 wrote. He says: — ''I entirely disclaim the hatred 
 and hostility to the Turks, or any race of men, which 
 you ascribe to me. I do not doubt that you write in 
 entire good faith, but your statements of facts are 
 unauthenticated. I proceed only upon authenticated 
 statements. I make no charge against the Turks at 
 large, but against a Turkish government." I make 
 the charges which they have been proved guilty of 
 by public authority. In my opinion, I have been a 
 far better friend to the Ottoman Empire than have 
 the Sultan and his advisers. I have always recom- 
 mended the granting of reasonable powers of local self- 
 government, which would have saved Turkey from ter- 
 rible losses. This good advice has been spurned, and 
 in consequence Turkey has lost 18,000,000 of people, 
 and may lose more. Pray weigh these words." — 
 
 The birthday of the Ex-Premier was made the oc- 
 casion for an anti-Turkish demonstration. 
 
182 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Outrages and Abominations of 1876 in Bulgaria Repeated in 
 
 Armenia in 1894. 
 
 [From The New York Herald.] 
 
 London, Dec. 29, 1894. — Mr. Gladstone cele- 
 brated his eighty-fifth birthday to-day, and was the 
 recipient of hundreds of letters and telegrams of con- 
 gratulation and parcels containing birthday gifts. Mr. 
 Gladstone was in remarkably good health and spirits, 
 and, despite the stormy weather, drove through 
 the village of Hawarden to the church, where he met 
 a deputation of Armenian Christians from Paris and 
 London. The deputation presented a silver chalice to 
 the church. The chalice was presented to the Rev. 
 Stephen Gladstone, son of the ex-Premier, and rector 
 of the Hawarden church, in recognition of the interest 
 his father has taken in the Armenian outrages. Mr, 
 Gladstone, in his reply to the deputation's address, said 
 that it was not their duty to assume that all the allega- 
 tions of outrages were true, but rather to await the re- 
 sult of the inquiry which had been instituted. How- 
 ever, he said, the published accounts pointed strongly 
 to the conclusion that the outrages, sins, and abomina- 
 tions committed in 1876 in Bulgaria had been repeated 
 in 1894 in Armenia. Continuing, Mr. Gladstone said: 
 " Don't let me be told that one nation has no authority 
 over another. Every nation, aye, every human being, 
 has authority in behalf of humanity and justice." He 
 had been silent, he said, because he had full confidence 
 that the government knew its duty. If the allegations 
 made should prove to be true, it was time that the 
 execration of humanity should force itself upon the 
 ears of the Sultan of Turkey, and make him sensible of 
 the madness of such a course as was being pursued- 
 Mr. Gladstone, in conclusion, said: — "The history of 
 Turkey is a sad and painful one. The Turkish race 
 has not been without remarkable, even fine qualities, 
 
THE GREAT POWERS AND ARMENIA. 183 
 
 but from too many points of view it has been a scourge 
 which has been made use of by a wise Providence for 
 the sins of the world. If these tales of murder, viola- 
 tion, and outrage be true, well, then, they cannot be 
 overlooked, nor can they be made light of. I have 
 lived to see the Empire of Turkey in Europe reduced 
 to less than one-half of what it was when I was born. 
 And why ? Simply because of its misdeeds, and the 
 great record written by the hand of Almighty God 
 against its injustice, lust, and most abominable cruelty. 
 I hope and feel sure that the government of Great 
 Britain will do everything that can be done to pierce to 
 the bottom of this mystery, and make the facts known 
 to the world. 
 
 ^^ If happily (I speak hoping against hope) the re- 
 ports be disproved or mitigated, let us thank God. If, 
 on the other hand, they be established, it will more 
 than ever stand before the world that there is a lesson, 
 however severe it may be, that can teach certain people 
 the duty of prudence, and the necessity of observing 
 the laws of decency, humanity, and justice. If the 
 allegations are true, it is time that there should be one 
 general shout of execration against these deeds of wick- 
 edness from outraged humanity. If the facts are well 
 established, it should be written in letters of iron upon 
 the records of the world that a government which 
 could be guilty of countenancing and covering up 
 such atrocities is a disgrace to Mohammed the prophet, 
 a disgrace to civilization at large, and a disgrace to 
 mankind. Now that is strong language, but strong 
 language ought to be used when the facts are strong. 
 But strong language ought not to be used without the 
 strength of facts. 
 
 " I have counseled you to be still and keep your 
 judgment in suspense; but as the evidence grows, the 
 case darkens, and my hopes dwindle and decline, and 
 
184 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 as long as I have voice it will be littered in behalf of 
 humanity and truth. I wish you heartily every bless- 
 ing, and also wish with every heartiness prosperity to 
 your nation, however dark the present may seem.'' 
 
 Lord Salisbury. 
 
 ISTow we come to the present Prime Minister, Lord 
 Salisbury. He is reputed a great statesman. That 
 should mean that he has accomplished something 
 great. Well, what ? I know of nothing, have heard 
 of nothing. Has he saved any country ? Has he 
 elevated any ? Has he done any public action that 
 can "be set down to his cfedit ? He has hindered some 
 good ones, that is all. On the Armenian question he 
 has done enormous harm. If he is not a great hypo- 
 crite, there is no use comparing a man's words with his 
 actions. I have always told my friends that nothing 
 good could be hoped for from him, for morally he is 
 worse than the Sultan. An eminent English clergy- 
 man told me that Lord Salisbury is another Sultan, 
 and I believe him. Here are a few^ of Lord Salis- 
 bury's deliverances; see how they agree: — 
 
 [Prom The New York World, August 16, 1895.] 
 
 Lord Salisbury to Sir Philip Currie, the British 
 Ambassador to Constantinople: — " The Porte must 
 accept the proposals of the Powers unconditionally, or 
 England would use sharper means than those adopted 
 by Lord Rosebery to settle affairs in Armenia." — 
 [July 30, 1895. 
 
 Lord Salisbury, in a speech in London about the 
 time of the above, said, " The concert of Europe 
 on the Armenian question is complete, and England 
 
THE GREAT POWERS AND ARMENIA. 185 
 has the loyal support of other powers to reform Ar- 
 
 menia." 
 
 At another time we note: — ^' There is every rea- 
 son to believe that the Chinese government is sincerely 
 desirous of punishing the perpetrators of the outrages 
 and those who connived at them. Should any luke- 
 warmness become discernible, it will become our duty 
 to supply its defect. 
 
 " With respect to Armenia, we have accepted the 
 policy which our predecessors initiated, and our efforts 
 will be directed to obtaining an adequate guarantee 
 for the carrying out of reform. We have received the 
 most loyal support from both France and Russia. The 
 permanence of the Sultan's rule is involved in the con- 
 duct he pursues. If the cries of misery continue, the 
 Sultan must realize that Europe will become weary 
 of appeals, and the fictitious strength which the pow- 
 ers have given the empire will fail it. The Sultan will 
 make a calamitous mistake if he refuses to accept the 
 advice of the European powers relative to the re- 
 forms." The House of Lords adopted the address 
 in reply to the Queen's speech. 
 
 After the above strong words,. Lord Salisbury 
 backed down and sneaked out of his bold attitude in 
 this way. (Jan. 31, 1896.) See how he asserts, first 
 that England cannot do anything for the Armenians, 
 and second that it is not her duty to do anything : — 
 
 [From The New York Tribune.] 
 
 " The Prime Minister expressed sympathy with 
 the Armenians, but denied that Great Britain was 
 under obligation to declare w^ar against the Sultan 
 of Turkey in order to compel him to govern justly, 
 and cited the treaties in proof of his contention. He 
 ascribed the atrocities to the passions of race and creed. 
 
186 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 He believed that the Sultan's government was wretched 
 and impotent, but there was no ground for im- 
 agining that the Sultan had instigated the massacres. 
 It might be asked why Europe did not interfere. He 
 could only answer for England. She had lacked the 
 power to do the only thing necessary to end the trou- 
 bles, namely, to militarily occupy Turkish provinces. 
 None of the powers wished so to occupy them. 
 
 ^^ Lord Salisbury said he concurred in the belief 
 that the only authority, albeit it was an evil one, in 
 that country was the prestige of the Sultan's name. 
 Patience must be exercised, and time must be given 
 to His Majesty to enforce the reforms he had prom- 
 ised. He remarked upon the gradual return of order 
 in Anatolia during the last few weeks, although he 
 admitted that these signs should not be trusted too 
 much. He concluded by declaring that if Great 
 Britain did not co-operate with the other powers, she 
 must act against them, which would lead to calamities 
 far more awful than the Armenian massacres." 
 
 Ambassador Currie instructed not to exert Undue Pressure on the 
 
 Sultan. 
 
 [From The New York World, 1895.] 
 
 London, ISTov. 23, 1895. — It can be authoritatively 
 stated that Lord Salisbury's instructions to Sir Philip 
 Currie, the British Ambassador to Turkey, who left 
 England a few days ago on his return to his post of 
 duty, are to refrain from exerting undue pressure on 
 the Sultan for the execution of the reforms in Ar- 
 menia, and to give the Porte time to recover from 
 the existing administrative anarchy, and appoint au- 
 thorities through whom the reforms must be eifected. 
 
 Sir Philip has taken with him an autograph letter 
 from the Queen to the Sultan. This is supposed to 
 be a reply to a letter the Sultan sent to her with the 
 
THE GREAT POWERS AND ARMENIA. 187 
 
 communication he sent to Lord Salisbury, which the 
 latter read at the meeting of the National Union of 
 Conservatives at Brighton, on Tuesday night last. 
 
 It is reported that the Queen will invite the Sul- 
 tan to visit England, when the time shall be auspi- 
 cious. The anxiety at the Foreign Office in regard 
 to the East has greatly lessened during the week. 
 
 England possessed the Island of Cyprus, and it be- 
 came her duty to look after the reforms in Turkey. 
 But now Salisbury denies it, saying that it is not her 
 duty, and meantime says that time must be given to 
 the Sultan of Turkey, as if all the time had not been 
 given him since the Berlin treaty of 1878. 
 
 Salisbury used another silly trick, persuading the 
 Queen of England to write a letter to the Sultan and 
 appeal to his good nature ; as if the Sultan had a good 
 nature; but the Queen wrote the letter. 
 
 A strong criticism b}^ the editor of the 'New York 
 " Press " on Lord Salisbury's speech. 
 
 February 3, 1896. 
 
 " We confess that we are at a loss to comprehend 
 the meaning of Lord Salisbury's Armenian speech. 
 We do not know what to make of it when he says that 
 the Berlin Treaty ^^ bound the signatory powers, that, 
 if the Sultan promulgated certain reforms, they would 
 watch over the progress of these reforms. Nothing 
 more." We cannot understand him when he de- 
 clares that the Cyprus Convention ' contains no trace 
 of an understanding to interfere in behalf of the Sul- 
 tan's subjects.' When Russia made, in March, 1878, 
 a treaty with Turkey, called the treaty of San Stefano, 
 Great Britain became alarmed lest Russia should se- 
 
188 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 cure too mucli influence in Constantinople. Kussia 
 then held some Armenian provinces bordering on her 
 territory, and it seemed clear that it was her purpose to 
 seize others. England protested to the Sultan against 
 the treaty of San Stefano, but the government of the 
 Ottoman Porte was helpless against the Czar, and the 
 Sultan declared that he must adhere to the treaty. 
 Great Britain then secretly bound herself to aid Tur- 
 key by force of arms in preventing Russia from ap- 
 propriating further Armenian provinces, Turkey 
 agreeing, on her part, to reform her local administra- 
 tion in her remaining Armenian provinces and as- 
 signing the island of Cyprus to be occupied and ad- 
 ministered by Great Britain. 
 
 " Great Britain, meanwhile, had incited the other 
 powers of Europe to take action against the treaty of 
 San Stefano. Austria was induced to suggest a Euro- 
 pean C^ongress. Russia at first refused to go into this 
 Congress; but, seeing that all the great powers were 
 uniting against her, she consented to attend. The re- 
 sult of this Congress was the Treaty of Berlin, signed 
 by the six powers, — England, Russia, Germany, 
 Erance, Austria, and Italy. By this treaty Turkey 
 was stripped of Bulgaria, Servia, and Roumania, and 
 Russia was deprived of all she had won during 
 the Turko-Russian war, except the Armenian pro- 
 vinces which she still controls. By this treaty, also, 
 the signatory powers became guardians and trustees of 
 the Ottoman Porte, pledging themselves that religious 
 freedom should be secured in the Turkish Empire, and 
 that Armenian Christians should be protected against 
 the Circassians and Kurds. 
 
 " We are puzzled, therefore, to understand Lord 
 Salisbury when he says that all these promises did not 
 mean anything. Certainly he ought to know, for, as 
 the agent of the Disraeli government, it was Lord 
 
THE GREAT POWERS AND ARMENIA. 189 
 
 Salisbury who drafted the agreements and drew up 
 the promises. For eighteen years Christian civihza- 
 tion has supposed that they did mean something. But 
 Lord SaHsbury says not. He says that all the powers 
 agreed to do was to ' watch over the execution of those 
 reforms ' if they were promulgated. 
 
 " What does that mean, anyway ? Does it mean, 
 as the Christian world has all along supposed, that the 
 six powers would engage themselves to see that these 
 reforms were carried out by Turkey, or does it mean 
 that if the reforms were carried out they would simply 
 look on ; and if the reforms were not carried out, if ten 
 thousand Armenian homes were destroyed, and four 
 times ten thousand Armenian citizens were butchered, 
 they would still simply look on ? 
 
 " ^or do we understand Lord Salisbury when he 
 pleads that it requires time for the Turkish govern- 
 ment to carry out the reforms ^ which the Sultan re- 
 cently has accepted.' Why the Turkish govern- 
 ment ? There is no Turkish government. There is 
 a Mohammedan administration, but the government 
 of the Ottoman Porte expired with the Treaty of Ber- 
 lin. The Turkish government is vested de facto in 
 the six signatory powers of the Berlin Congress. Even 
 the local government of Constantinople itself lies in 
 the hands of these powers. The capital is divided into 
 six sections, each controlled by a treaty power. Each 
 has its own coiTrts, its own military, even its own police. 
 When Englishmen wish a wrong to be righted in the 
 Turkish Empire, or a reform to be executed, they do 
 not request the ^ Turkish government ' to listen to 
 their appeal. The British Minister summons the 
 Grand Yezir and orders him to do what is wished. 
 And he does it forthwith, so far as he is permitted by 
 the orders of the representatives of the other treaty 
 powers. It is in London, in Berlin, in St. Petersburg, 
 
190 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 in Paris, in Vienna, and in Rome that the Turkish 
 government rests. 
 
 " It is for these reasons that we are unable to un- 
 derstand what Lord Salisbury means when he says 
 that the Berlin Treaty and the Cyprus Convention 
 impose no responsibility for Armenian reforms upon 
 any one save the Sultan. The Cyprus Convention 
 specifies : — 
 
 ^^ Treaty of Defensive Alliance between the British 
 Government and the Sublime Porte, signed on June 
 4, 1878:— 
 
 Article I. If Batoum, Ardahan, Kars, or any of them 
 shall be retained by Russia, and if any attempt shall be 
 made at any future time by Russia to take possession of 
 any further territories of his imperial Majesty, the Sultan, 
 in Asia, as fixed by the definitive treaty of peace, England 
 engages to join His Imperial Majesty, the Sultan, in defend- 
 ing them by force of arms. In return, His Imperial Majesty, 
 the Sultan, promises to England to introduce necessary 
 reforms, to be agreed upon later between the two powers, 
 into the government, and for the protection of Christian and 
 other subjects of the Porte in these territories; and in order 
 to enable England to make necessary provision for executing 
 her engagement, His Imperial Majesty, the Sultan, further 
 consents to assign the Island of Cyprus, to be occupied and 
 administered by England. 
 
 " Why, then, does not Lord Salisbury carry out 
 England's pledges, for which he is directly responsi- 
 ble, since he made them in her name ? 
 
 '' England must be held to an accounting for the 
 disorders in Armenia. There are no such disorders 
 in the provinces administered by the Czar, provinces 
 adjoining those where for the last six years pillage, 
 destruction, and murder have swept away every sign 
 of government. In the provinces controlled by the 
 Czar the Armenians have been so well treated, enjoy- 
 
THE GREAT POWERS AND ARMENIA. 191 
 
 ing unquestioned religious freedom and rights, that 
 there have been not the slightest disorders. But in 
 the provinces where England pledged reform, the Ar- 
 menian is butchered daily. 
 
 ^' Does Lord Salisbury mean that so long as Great 
 Britain occupies Cyprus, pending the execution of re- 
 forms, it is better for England that the reforms should 
 not be executed and that England should ' watch 
 over them; nothing more ' ? " 
 
 ]^ote carefully what Salisbury says first; then what 
 he says afterward. First he says there is complete 
 concert among the powers, then he says there is not; 
 first he threatens the Sultan, then he is friendly. 
 First he seems to be a brave and noble statesman, then 
 a cowardly politician. 
 
 Sir Philip Currie, the British Ambassador at Con- 
 stantinople, is a brave and noble gentleman. He was 
 sent there by the Liberal government, before Salis- 
 bury's accession. He has done a great deal for the 
 Armenian cause. But after Lord Salisbury became 
 Prime Minister, he called him to London and in- 
 structed him to have cordial relations with the Sultan, 
 and now he can do nothing. 
 
 Finally there appear to be two Englands, con- 
 servative England and liberal England, slave Eng- 
 land and free England, selfish England and noble 
 and sympathetic England, false England and true 
 England. The head of conservative, selfish, false, op- 
 pressive England is Lord Salisbury. The head of 
 liberal, free, noble, and true England is Mr. Glad- 
 stone. Therefore nothing for Armenia can be ex- 
 
192 AR^lENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 pectecl from the Conservatives, wliile much may be 
 hoped from the Liberals. Gladstone is an old man, 
 but God will raise a Joshua to succeed Moses; Glad- 
 stone will see the Armenian nation free, and then he 
 will die. 
 
 GERMANY AND THE ARMENIAN QUESTION. 
 
 Listen to what the haughty young ruler of Ger- 
 many says: — "It is better that the Armenians be 
 killed than the peace of Europe be disturbed.'' The 
 explanation is easy enough. When he visited Con- 
 stantinople half a dozen years ago, the Sultan pre- 
 sented him with Arabian horses, jewelry of massive 
 gold, and many other valuable articles, worth in all 
 several hundred thousand dollars; and last summer 
 sent him a beautiful and valuable sword made in Con- 
 stantinople by Armenians, which was carried to him 
 by Shakir Pasha, the butcher who was afterwards 
 appointed by the Sultan to reform Armenia, — the 
 commander of the " Hamidieh Cavalry," whose Avork 
 I tell of later on. This embassy was to secure the al- 
 liance of Germany against molestation by Russia. 
 
 The German Emperor has three motives in his 
 present action. One is to show gratitude for the Sul- 
 tan's generosity — as though it were not the easiest 
 thing in the world to be munificent when it all comes 
 out of other people. The second is to punish Lord 
 Salisbury for not getting England to join the Triple 
 Alliance, when the Emperor asked him in person 
 on his journey to England. When Salisbury threat- 
 ened the Sultan in the interest of Armenia, the Ger- 
 
THE GREAT POWERS AND ARMENIA. 193 
 
 man Emperor said, '^ The English government has 
 no right to interfere with the Turkish Empire. Every 
 sovereign must have the right to govern as he thinks 
 necessary, or he is no sovereign." He afterwards 
 sent his Chancellor, Prince Hohenlohe, to the Czar 
 to arrange united resistance to England, and after- 
 wards sent Count Yon Moltke on the same errand. 
 And the Czar instructed his Ambassador at Con- 
 stantinople, M. E^elidoff, to inform the Sultan that 
 he would not support the English government in 
 coercing Turkey. The Sultan therefore refused Sal- 
 isbury's demands, and he dared not go on alone. The 
 Emperor's third motive was to gain the friendship of 
 the Czar against France, which had lately been taking 
 up the Russian alliance with great fervor. Another 
 reason is that he hates the Armenians for having 
 bought the German factories and property in Amas- 
 sia. He is very anxious to plant German colonies in 
 Turkey, of all places in the world, for profit. There 
 are about fifty families in Amassia, near Marsovan, 
 and they had started various kinds of factories there; 
 but the shrewd and wealthy Armenians bought them 
 out. The Emperor is angry because his colony was 
 not successful. 
 
 For all these reasons the German Emperor refused 
 to send gunboats to the Bosphorus when the other 
 powers did; he said he saw no need of it. He was 
 right so far as Germans were concerned; the Sultan 
 was not going to allow his ally's subjects to be slaugh- 
 tered and the ally turned into an enemy. And if he 
 13 
 
194 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 could stop the massacre of one sort of people, he could 
 of another; nothing shows the Sultan's deliberate 
 purpose in the massacres better than the fact that 
 when he chose not to let any particular sort of people 
 be harmed, that sort were not harmed. But as to 
 Germany, what hope for Armenia is there from it ? 
 The Emperor has his own interests, and the Armen- 
 ians might be tortured or outraged to death, and 
 he would not stir a finger. 
 
 RUSSIA AND THE ARMENIANS. 
 
 The present Czar, Nicholas II, is a corrupt weak- 
 ling, who is on the throne by the law of heredity, 
 against the will of his father. Morally he is as bad 
 as the Sultan; not so cruel yet, though he may de- 
 velop that in time, but fully as sensual and de- 
 void of principle. I have had it from good Russian 
 authority that his life before his marriage was so bad 
 that it has rendered him entirely impotent. " Birds 
 of a feather flock together." No wonder he helps 
 the Sultan. His political aims and character are 
 wholly selfish. He, too, like the German Emperor, 
 is continually exchanging presents with the Sultan. 
 Here is a press notice of Feb. 26, 1896: — " M. 
 Nelidoff, the Russian Ambassador, has presented 
 to the Sultan a pair of jasper vases from the 
 Czar, together with an autograph letter from His Ma- 
 jesty thanking the Sultan for the gifts sent to him." 
 'Not only so, but they have concluded an alliance. 
 Read the following dispatch of Jan. 23, 1896: — 
 
THE GREAT POWERS AND ARMENIA. 195 
 
 " London, Jan. 23, 1896. — A dispatch to the Pall 
 Mall Gazette from Constantinople, dated yesterday, 
 says that an offensive and defensive alliance has been 
 concluded between Russia and Turkey. The Pall Mall 
 Gazette correspondent adds that the treaty was signed 
 at Constantinople, and that the ratifications were ex- 
 changed at St. Petersburg between Arifi Pasha and 
 the Czar. 
 
 " The basis of the treaty is declared to be on the 
 lines of the Unkiarskelessi agreement of 1833, by 
 which Turkey agreed, in the event of Russia going 
 to war, to close the Dardanelles to war-ships of all 
 nations. The Pall Mall Gazette's correspondent then 
 says the treaty will soon be abandoned, owing to the 
 refusal of the powers to recognize it. He also says 
 that the French Ambassador, M. Cambon, conferred 
 with the Sultan yesterday, and that it is probable 
 France will be included in the new alliance. 
 
 "The Pall Mall Gazette says: ^ We regard the 
 news as true, and the result of the treaty is that the 
 Dardanelles is now the Southern outpost of Russia, 
 and Turkey is Russia's vassal. We presume the 
 British government will protest against the treaty for 
 all it is worth. 
 
 " ^ The information is plainly of the A^ery gravest 
 importance. The first intimation reached us four 
 days ago ; but we withheld it until the arrival of strong 
 confirmation, which we received this morning. This 
 brings Russia into the Mediterranean with a ven- 
 geance, and may necessitate the strengthening of our 
 fleet in those waters. Politically, the effect will be 
 far greater. The treaty means that Turkey has real- 
 ized her own impotence against disorders both from 
 within and without, and has decided to throw herself 
 for safety into the arms of Russia. She is now Rus- 
 sia's vassal, and Russia is entitled to dispatch troops 
 
196 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 to any part of the Sultan's dominions whenever there 
 is the least breach of order — and when is there not ? 
 " ^ We presume the arrangement will give the keen- 
 est satisfaction to the Anglo-American section of our 
 people. With them lies the chief blame for the 
 complete alienation of Turkey, though it must be 
 owned that it has been sedulously fostered by a long 
 term of weak policy at Constantinople.' " 
 
 For the present the Czar will do no more mischief, 
 because he is to have his coronation in May, and pre- 
 fers to put on the smoothest outside to every nation; 
 but after that is over he will show his hand. His 
 father and his grandfather favored the Armenians in 
 Russia, and they prospered wonderfully, but this one 
 proposes to persecute them to please the Sultan. The 
 two will join in a common policy toward the unhappy 
 race, till not less than a million are slain. The Czar's 
 motive is not love of the Sultan, whom he hates in 
 spite of their community of character; it is simply 
 that he wishes to get Constantinople peaceably if he 
 can. The Sultan knows this quite well, but he is too 
 w^eak in military power, and too poor, and owes too 
 large an indemnity to the Czar to be able to help him- 
 self. He is compelled to throw himself on the Czar 
 for protection. 
 
 Will the Czar succeed in getting Constantinople ? 
 ^o; the attempt will ruin and break up the Russian 
 Empire. All the European powers would resist it; 
 some of them may seem friendly to the Czar now, but 
 when he comes to seize Constantinople every one of 
 them will be against him. He Avill try it, none the 
 
THE GREAT POWERS AND ARMENIA. 197 
 
 less. The famous '^ will " of Peter the Great, though 
 a patent and notorious forgery of Napoleon's, — never 
 seen till 1812, just before the Russian campaign, and 
 circulated then to influence Europe against Russia, — 
 was the most magnificent piece of forgery ever com- 
 mitted, for it has actually become a guiding policy to 
 the country it was aimed against, just as if it had 
 been real. Nothing in history equals this for impu- 
 dence and success combined ; it is a true Napoleonism. 
 This bogus ^' will " has become the ^' Monroe doc- 
 trine '' of Russia; I am not entitled to say whether 
 the latter is as mischievoiis as the former. That most 
 Russian of all Russian journals, the " Ruskija Yja- 
 domosti," has lately been having one of its periodical 
 spasms of hysterical hatred toward all policy not 
 " good Russian,'' and boldly proclaims that Russia 
 must follow the precepts laid down in this will ! 
 Since, therefore, it is just as important as if it were 
 not the greatest of all " fakes," I give it here that the 
 reader may know what Russian policy is to be : — 
 
 Will of Peter the Great. 
 In the name of the most holy and indivisible Trinity, 
 we, Peter the Great, unto all our descendants and succes- 
 sors to the throne and government of the Russian nation: the 
 All-Powerful, from whom we hold our life and our throne, 
 after having revealed unto us his wishes and intentions, 
 and after being our support, permits us to look upon Russia 
 as called upon to establish her rule over all Europe. This 
 idea is based upon the fact that all nations of this portion 
 of the globe are fast approaching a state of utter decrepi- 
 tude. From this it results that they can be easily conquered 
 by a new race of people when it has attained full power 
 and strength. We look upon our invasion of the West and 
 
198 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 East as a decree of divine providence, which has already 
 once regenerated the Roman Empire by an invasion of 
 "barbarians." 
 
 The emigration of men from the North is like the inunda- 
 tion of the Nile, which, at certain seasons, enriches with its 
 waters the arid plains of Egypt. We found Russia a small 
 rivulet; we leave it an immense river. Our successors will 
 make it an ocean, destined to fertilize the whole of Europe if 
 they know how to guide its waves. We leave them, then, 
 the following insti uctions, which we earnestly recommend 
 to their constant meditation. 
 
 I. To keep the Prussian nation in constant warfare, in 
 order always to have good soldiers. Peace must only be 
 permitted to recuperate finance, to recruit the army, to 
 choose the moment favorable for attack. Thus peace will 
 advance your projects of war, and war those of peace, for 
 obtaining the enlargement and prosperity of Russia. 
 
 II. Draw unto you by all possible means, from the 
 civilized nations of Europe, captains during war and learned 
 men during peace, so that Russia may benefit by the ad- 
 vantages of other nations. 
 
 III. Take care to mix in the affairs of all Europe, and 
 in particular of Germany, which, being the nearest nation 
 to you, deserves your chief attention. 
 
 IV. Divide Poland by raising up continual disorders 
 and jealousies within its bosom. Gain over its rulers with 
 gold influence and corrupt the Diet, in order to have a 
 voice in the election of the kings. Make partisans and pro- 
 tect them; if neighboring powers raise objections and op- 
 position, surmount the obstacles by stirring up discord 
 within their countries. 
 
 V. Take all you can from Sweden, and to this effect 
 isolate her from Denmark, and vice versa. Be careful to 
 rouse their mutual jealousy. 
 
 A^I. Marry Russian princes to German Princesses; 
 multiply these alliances, unite these interests, and by the in- 
 crease of our influence attach Germany to our cause. 
 
 VII. Seek the alliance with England on account of our 
 commerce, as being the country most useful for the develop- 
 ment of our navy, merchants, etc., and for the exchange of 
 
THE GREAT POWERS AND ARMENIA. 199 
 
 our produce against her gold. Keep up continual communi- 
 cation with her merchants and sailors, so that ours may ac- 
 quire experience in commerce and navigation. 
 
 VIII. Constantly extend yourselves along the shores of 
 the Baltic and the borders of the Euxine. 
 
 IX. Do all in your power to approach closely Constan- 
 tinople and India. Remember that he who rules over these 
 countries is the real sovereign of the world. Keep up con- 
 tinued wars with Turkey and with Persia. Establish dock- 
 yards in the Black Sea. Gradually obtain the command of 
 this sea as well as of the Baltic. This is necessary for the 
 entire success of our projects. Hasten the fall of Persia. 
 Open for yourself a route toward the Persian Gulf. 
 Re-establish as much as possible, by means of Syria, the 
 ancient commerce of the Levant, and thus advance toward 
 India. Once there you will not require English gold. 
 
 X. Carefully seek the alliance of Austria. Make her 
 believe that you will second her in her projects for dominion 
 over Germany, but secretly stir up other princes against 
 her, and manage so that each be disposed to claim the 
 assistance of Russia; and exercise over each a sort of pro- 
 tection, which will lead the way to a future dominion over 
 them. 
 
 XI. Make Austria drive the Turks out of Europe, and 
 neutralize her jealousy by offering to her a portion of your 
 conquests, which you will further on take back. 
 
 XII. Above all, recall around you the schismatic Greeks 
 who are spread over Hungary and Poland. Become their 
 center, and support a universal dominion over them by a 
 kind of sacerdotal autocracy; by this you will have many 
 friends among your enemies. 
 
 XIII. Sweden dismembered, Persia conquered, Poland 
 subjugated, Turkey beaten, our armies united, the Black 
 and Baltic seas guarded by our vessels, prepare, separately 
 and secretly, first the court of Versailles, then that of 
 Vienna, to share the empire of the universe with Russia. 
 If one accept, flatter her ambition and vanity, and make 
 use of one to crush the other by engaging them in war. The 
 result cannot be doubted; Russia will be possessed of the 
 whole of the East and a great portion of Europe. 
 
200 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 XIV. If, which is not probable, both should refuse the 
 offer of Russia, raise a quarrel between them, and one which 
 will ruin them both; then Russia, profiting by this decisive 
 movement, will inundate Germany with the troops which she 
 will have assembled beforehand. At the same time two 
 fleets full of soldiers will leave the Baltic and the Black 
 Sea, will advance along the Mediterranean and the ocean, 
 keeping France in check with the one and Germany with 
 the other. And these two countries conquered, the re- 
 mainder of Europe will fall under our yoke. Thus can 
 Europe be subjugated. 
 
 But aside from this, no help could be expected 
 from Russia in any event, because she needs all her 
 strength to save herself from destruction by her own 
 internal decay. She is a great tree, hollow in the in- 
 side. The Nihilists and the Constitutional Reform- 
 ers are both against her, and, in my belief, she will go 
 to pieces in the present Czar's lifetime. The Sul- 
 tan's days are numbered, but the Czar's and the Em- 
 peror's are too; their own people will rise and depose 
 them. It is against Socialists and Nihilists that they 
 are massing such great armies. How can they spare 
 any service for a people being murdered off the earth ? 
 
 FRANCE AND ARMENIA. 
 Of the other powers, little need be said. France 
 has lost all her great men, and become a tail to Rus- 
 sia, and is ready to be moved blindly, as Russia may 
 direct. And as part of the people are infidels, and 
 the rest fanatical Catholics, there is no religious mo- 
 tive to prompt them to come to the rescue. France, 
 in a word, can or will do nothing directly; all it can 
 do is to threaten the haughty Emperor of Germany. 
 
THE GREAT POWERS AND ARMENIA. 201 
 
 Italy is bankrupt, and even the throne of King Hum- 
 bert is in danger, and that country will follow in the 
 wake of Austria. 
 
 THE POPE OF ROME AND THE ARMENIANS. 
 
 Pope Leo XIII sent 70,000 lire to the Armenian 
 sufferers; probably to the Catholics alone, for there 
 are about 100,000 Catholic Armenians in Turkey. 
 But the Armenians can expect no help from the Pope ; 
 he has no troops; he has no great fund of spare money, 
 and he would be very unlikely to use either if he had 
 them. The motive of all the Popes has been to con- 
 vert the Protestant Armenian Church to become a 
 part of the Roman Catholic Church, — to acknowledge 
 the Papacy. I say Protestant, for before Martin Lu- 
 ther was born, the Armenian Church protested against 
 the popes of Pome age after age, and was persecuted 
 by them. The Armenians offer their thanks to the 
 Pope for his gifts, but they cannot accept his domin- 
 ion. 
 
 [Press dispatch, N. Y. Herald.] 
 
 Rome, Dec. 16, 1895.— The Pope has sent 20,- 
 000 lire for the relief of the sufferers from Turkish 
 misrule in Anatolia, in addition to the 50,000 lire 
 previously given by him for the same purpose." 
 
 The European edition published recently in a 
 dispatch from Rome the following passage dealing 
 with the Eastern question in the allocution delivered 
 by Leo XIII at the consistory on Xovember 29 : — 
 
 " The whole of Europe in anxious expectation 
 looks toward its eastern neighbor, troubled by griev- 
 
202 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 ons events and internal conflicts. The sight of towns 
 and villages defiled by scenes of blood and of vast ex- 
 tents of territory ravaged by fire and sword is a cruel 
 and lamentable spectacle.- 
 
 '' While the powers are taking counsel together 
 in the laudable effort to find means of putting an end 
 to the carnage and restore quiet, we have not omitted 
 to defend this noble and just cause to the extent of 
 our power. Long before these recent events, we vol- 
 untarily intervened in favor of the Armenian nation. 
 AYe advised concord, quiet, and equity. 
 
 ^^ Our counsels did not appear to give offense. We 
 mean to pursue the work we have begun, for we desire 
 nothing so much as to see the security of persons and 
 all rights safeguarded throughout the immense em- 
 pire. 
 
 " In the meantime we have decided to send help 
 to the most tried and the most needy of the Armen- 
 ians." 
 
 AMERICA AND ARMENIA, 
 ^ow we cross the ocean and come to the United 
 States. Everywhere here the people have shown the 
 greatest sympathy for us; and the Armenians are 
 deeply moved and exceedingly grateful for it. The 
 newspapers have almost uniformly been on our side 
 also; the only exception of any moment has been the 
 ^ew York " Herald," which has steadily favored the 
 Sultan. The reason is the same as for General Wal- 
 lace's like opinion of that worthless animal, — mis- 
 taking his entertainments and gifts for proofs of good 
 character, humanity, and statesmanship. Mr. Ben- 
 nett, too, knows the taste of the dinners at the palace, 
 and perhaps the weight of the golden ornaments he 
 
THE GREAT POWERS AND ARMENIA. 203 
 
 gives out. Fortunately his paper has very little in- 
 fluence on public opinion; and the real leaders of it 
 have remained true. 
 
 I believe it will be the Americans who will finally 
 put an end to the Armenian atrocities; but the time 
 has not come yet. It will take two years more, then 
 this 70,000,000 of people will be aroused as one man 
 and stop them. I should like here to give an account 
 of the many mass meetings held here for our cause; 
 but I can only take space for two, one which I organ- 
 ized in Baltimore, and one held in 'New York, at 
 which I was present. 
 
 Mass-Meeting at Levering Hall, Baltimore 
 
 [Report from Baltimore Sun.] 
 
 December 11, 1894. — An enthusiastic meeting of 
 Baltimoreans was held last night at Levering Hall, 
 Johns Hopkins University, to make an emphatic pro- 
 test against the Turkish outrages upon Christian Ar- 
 menians, and to urge the United States government 
 to do all in its power to remedy the existing evils. 
 
 The meeting was called by a committee of Balti- 
 more ministers. It was presided over by Attorney- 
 (ieneral John P. Poe, and the Rev. T. M. Beadenkoff 
 was the secretary. 
 
 Addresses were made by Mr. Poe, Bev. George H. 
 Filian, an exiled Armenian Christian Minister, Rabbi 
 Wm. Rosenan, and Rev. Dr. F. M. Ellis. 
 
 Cardinal Gibbons and Judge Harlan sent letters 
 regretting their inability to be present, and express- 
 ing sympathy with the object of the gathering. 
 
 Mr. Poe, in taking the chair, said: — ^^ The ac- 
 counts which have reached us of the indescribable 
 atrocities recently committed upon the Christians in 
 
204 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Armenia have stirred the indignation and aroused the 
 sympathy of the whole country. 
 
 '^ At first the nameless outrages inflicted upon 
 them were received with incredulity, for it seemed al- 
 most impossible that they could be true. But there is 
 now no reason to discredit the harrowing details. In- 
 deed, denial is hardly any longer attempted, nor is it 
 claimed that the reports of the cruelties of which these 
 helpless people are the victims have been exaggerated. 
 
 " Conscious that the facts cannot be suppressed 
 or belittled, the representatives and apologists of the 
 ruthless perpetrators of these atrocities are endeavor- 
 ing to palliate and excuse the enormities which they 
 cannot truthfully deny. In order to shield them- 
 selves and their governments from universal execra- 
 tion, the world is asked to believe that the Christians 
 of Armenia were themselves the aggressors, and that 
 the horrors of massacre and rapine which have been 
 visited upon them wdth such relentless fury were but 
 necessary and pardonable measures of punishment and 
 repression. The long record of the patient and sub- 
 missive sufferers is a silent yet unanswerable refuta- 
 tion of this falsehood. 
 
 " In their misery and woe these sufferers lift their 
 eyes to us, and ask us to extend to them such sympathy 
 and assistance as will rescue them from total ruin. 
 
 ^' We are met here to-night to express these feel- 
 ings — to declare that we cannot look unmoved upon 
 the calamities of our Christian brethren, though sep- 
 arated from us by thousands of miles, and to recom- 
 mend to Congress the adoption of such measures as, 
 without departure from the well-settled policy of our 
 government, will bring; to them speedy and effectual 
 deliverance, safety, and peace." 
 
 Cardinal Gibbons' letter sent to the meeting was 
 as follows: 
 
THE GREAT POWERS AND ARMENIA. 205 
 
 " I regret my inability to attend tlie meeting to 
 protest against the alleged outrages recently com- 
 mitted in Armenia. 
 
 " The reports of these outrages have been pub- 
 lished with harrowing details throughout the civilized 
 world, and I am not aware that these circumstantial 
 details have been successfully denied. 
 
 ^' The Christians of Armenia have been conspicu- 
 ous among their Oriental co-religionists for their en- 
 lightened and progressive spirit. 
 
 ^' It is earnestly to be hoped that these alleged 
 deeds of lawless violence will be thoroughly investi- 
 gated in a calm and dispassionate spirit, so that the 
 whole truth may be brought to light, and that out- 
 raged law may be vindicated. The recital of these in- 
 human cruelties is calculated to fill every generous 
 heart with righteous indignation. 
 
 " The commercial and social ties that now bind 
 together the human family quicken our sympathy for 
 our suffering brethren, though separated from us by 
 ocean and mountains, and this sympathy is deepened 
 by the consideration that many of their countrymen 
 have cast their lot among us, and that they and their 
 persecuted brethren are united to us in the sacred 
 bonds of a common Christian faith. 
 
 " It is gratifying to note, from recent publications, 
 that a mixed commission, to make thorough investiga- 
 tion, has been appointed by the Sublime Porte." 
 
 Dr. Cyrus Hamlin of Lexington, Mass., whose 
 article on the outrages in Armenia, published in the 
 "Congregationalist," has been used by the Turkish gov- 
 ernment as a defense of the recent actions of the sol- 
 diers of the Porte, was asked to be present at the meet- 
 ing, and was also asked to define his position as to the 
 probable accuracy of the reports from Armenia, and as 
 
206 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 to the responsibility of the Sultan for the occurrence 
 of the massacre. 
 
 His letter of reply was read at the meeting. lie 
 stated emjDhatically that he believed the accounts 
 of the horrible atrocities to be in the main true, and 
 added that he believed the Sultan of Turkey was per- 
 fectly cognizant of them, and should be held respon- 
 sible for them. 
 
 Extracts were also read from a letter from some 
 Congregational missionaries now near the seat of the 
 massacres. The stories which they told, having been 
 written nearly a month after the occurrences, showed 
 that the earlier dispatches did not enlarge upon or ex- 
 aggerate the horror of the scenes. 
 
 Much interest was manifested in the address of 
 Mr. Filian, who feelingly described the pitiable con- 
 dition of his country and his countrymen, and graph- 
 ically portrayed the extent of the recent massacres, 
 illustrating his talk with references to a large map 
 of Turkey and Armenia. 
 
 " Armenia,'' he said, ^' was mentioned in the Bible 
 700 years before Chrisl. It then had an area of 1,- 
 000,000 square miles, and it was in that land that the 
 Garden of Eden was situated. Adam was created 
 there, and within its confines, upon Mt. Ararat, the 
 ark of ^N^oah found a resting place after the flood. Ar- 
 menia was named after Armen, the great-grandson of 
 Japhet, one of the three sons of Noah. In the time 
 of Christ the population of the country was 40,000,- 
 000. It was fully Christianized in 310 A. D., and 
 was not only the first Christian nation of the earth, 
 but the first civilized nation. And now, from all 
 these glories, the people of Armenia have dwindled 
 to 4,000,000." 
 
 He concluded by citing the cause of the massacre 
 
THE GREAT POWERS AND ARMENIA. 207 
 
 as the desire of the Turks to check the rapid growth 
 and improvement of the Armenians. 
 
 The following resolutions, which had been pre- 
 pared by a committee composed of Rev. Dr. Conrad 
 Clever, Rev. W. T. McKenney, Rev. F. T. Tagg, and 
 Rev. C. A. Fulton, were, after some discussion, 
 passed : 
 
 " It has come to our knowledge through sources that 
 cannot be disputed that an outrageous massacre of Ar- 
 menians has been executed within the boundaries of the 
 Turkish empire. 
 
 " These outrages have been committed by soldiers who 
 are in the employ and under the direction of the Sultan at 
 Constantinople. 
 
 " The thousands who have been murdered were Chris- 
 tians and peaceably disposed citizens. 
 
 " We, representatives of the citizens of Baltimore, 
 prompted by motives of Christianity and common brother- 
 hood, do call upon our government to use every power in its 
 control, in harmony with that international law which 
 governs nations in their relationship with each other, to aid 
 these sufferers, and if possible to bring such influence to 
 bear upon the Turkish government as will render justice to 
 those who have been deprived of their rightful liberties as 
 honest and industrious citizens of one of the recognized em- 
 pires of the earth." 
 
 It was also resolved that a committee of five, with 
 Mr. John P. Poe chairman, should be appointed to 
 present the resolutions to the president at the earliest 
 opportunity, and "' to gratefully acknowledge the steps 
 already taken in the appointment of an American 
 member of the committee of investigation." 
 
 Mass Meeting In Dr. Greer's Church. 
 
 [■Report from N. Y. Tribune.] 
 
 The interest which the American Christian feels 
 in the Armenian question was shown by the large at- 
 tendance at St. Bartholomew's Church, last night, 
 Avhen a special service w^as held under the direction of 
 Rev. Dr. David H. Greer. The object was to express 
 
208 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 indignation at Turkey's acts of violence toward Ar- 
 menians, and to enter a protest against a course of con- 
 duct which is not in keeping with the spirit of the 
 nineteenth century. 
 
 The main body of the church was reserved for 
 ArmenianSj of whom there were about 500 present. 
 
 After the processional hymn, " The Son of God 
 Goes Forth/' had been given, the full choir sang the 
 anthem, '^ I Will Mention the Loving Kindnesses of 
 the Lord." 
 
 Dr. Greer then spoke of the outrages committed 
 last September in Armenia, the particulars of which 
 had only recently become known. He said in part: 
 
 " The purpose of this meeting is not only to ex- 
 press sympathy with those who have suffered, and are 
 suffering now from the atrocities and barbarious cruel- 
 ties inflicted by Turkish soldiers, but for protesting 
 against the further infliction of such atrocities. What 
 has been done is done, and cannot be undone; but if 
 it is possible to prevent in any measure a repetition 
 of it in the future, it should become everyone who is 
 not a Christian merely, but a man, to exert himself 
 to the utmost in that direction." 
 
 The speaker told of the untrustworthiness of re- 
 ports from Turkey, and said that letters recently re- 
 ceived from good sources give the following details: 
 
 Early in September soiiie Kurds — the brigands 
 of that region — robbed some Armenian villages of 
 their flocks. The Armenians tried to recover their 
 property, and about a dozen Kurds were killed. The 
 authorities then telegraphed to the Sultan that the 
 Armenians had killed some of the Sultan's troops. 
 The Sultan on hearing this ordered the army, infan- 
 try, and cavalry, to put down the rebellion; and not 
 finding any rebellion to put down, they cleared the 
 country so that none should occur in the future. A 
 
THE GREAT POWERS AND ARMENIA. 209 
 
 number of towns and villages — tlie estimate varying 
 from twenty-four to forty-eight — were destroyed. 
 Men, women, and children were put to the sword, and 
 from six to ten thousand persons massacred in the dis- 
 trict of Sassoun. As the result of this wholesale 
 butchery and slaughter, an epidemic of cholera has 
 broken out, which is still ravaging the country. 
 
 The Turk has always been a cruel force, and has 
 practiced his cruelties hitherto with impunity. But 
 he cannot do so now. An enlightened public opinion 
 is to-day the governing power of the world. It is to 
 that we have to trust to accomplish moral reforms, 
 not only here, but everywhere. It is stronger than 
 states; it is mightier than empires, and the most ar- 
 bitrary and autocratic of despots feel its controlling 
 force. It is the force that moves the world. If meet- 
 ings similar to this are held in different parts of 
 the country and public sentiment aroused, even the 
 Turkish authorities Avill not be impervious to it. 
 
 Dr. Greer read a letter from Bishop Potter, in 
 which he expressed his regret at being unable to be 
 present at the meeting. ^' I am,'' he wrote, ^^ A Mon- 
 roe-doctrine disciple, first, last, and all time, but I 
 am a human being also, and while I think our com- 
 petency as a nation to send a commissioner to Turk- 
 ish-Armenia is open to question, I am quite clear that 
 our duty as something else than savages is to protest 
 against barbarism wherever it is to be found." 
 
 The Rev. Abraham Johannan then spoke in Ar- 
 menian, and was followed by the Rev. Dr. George 
 II. McGrew, who, during years of missionary work 
 in Armenia, had become familiar with the people and 
 their customs, and gave vivid pictures of the hatred 
 of the Turks toward any who acknowledges Christ as 
 the Son of God. 
 14 
 
210 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Mr. DepeiD's Speech. 
 
 Chauncey M. Depew was then introduced, and 
 made an eloquent appeal for the Armenians. He said 
 in part: 
 
 "" The closing days of 1894 could not be passed 
 more appropriately than in a protest by the Christian 
 peoples of the world against the outrages upon human- 
 ity which will be the ever-living disgrace of the dying 
 year. The industrial and financial disturbances which 
 have convulsed the world, and caused such widespread 
 distress during the last twelve months, are of tem- 
 porary and passing importance compared with the 
 merciless persecutions of a people because of their ^ 
 religious faith. 
 
 ''It is a criticism upon the boastfulness of the 
 nineteenth century that there should be any occasion 
 for this meeting, but it is also a tribute to the spirit of 
 the century that this meeting is held. There have 
 been religious wars and persecutions, and bloody re- 
 prisals, in all ages of modern times. They arouse our 
 indignation and our horror, but they excited little at- 
 tention beyond the countries where they occurred 
 from the twelfth to the nineteenth centuries. The 
 distinguishing feature of our period is an internation- 
 al public opinion. It came with steam and electricity; 
 it is the child of liberty of conscience. The Turkish 
 government, founded by the sword of Islam, is a hier- 
 archv and a creed, and not a government of liberty and 
 law." 
 
 Mr. Depew then described the disadvantages 
 under which Christians dwell in Turkey, and how 
 their standing before the law amounts to nothing. 
 
 " It was the atrocities incident to such institutions," 
 he said, '' which aroused Europe and liberated Greece, 
 which caused the other nations to stand still and risk 
 the balance of power, while Kussia freed Bulgaria, 
 
THE GREAT POWERS AND ARMENIA. 211 
 
 Eoumania, and Servia, and made tliem practically in- 
 dependent states. It was to assure religious liberty 
 that the treaty of Berlin recognized the autonomy 
 of the states, and bound the Christian nations of Eu- 
 rope to protect the Christian people still within the 
 Turkish dominion." 
 
 After holding up to ridicule the European 
 " peace " which is being maintained with continually 
 growing armies, Mr. Depew said: " The Armenians 
 are the New Englanders of the East. Their intel- 
 lect, industry, and thrift make them prosperous." He 
 spoke of their being the oldest Christian people, and 
 of the sacrifices which they have made and which they 
 daily make in the cause of their faith. The horrible 
 outrages committed against the peasants in Armenia 
 w^ere graphically described, and in this connection Mr. 
 Depew said: 
 
 ^^ The story of the attacks of these savage hordes 
 and no less savage troops reads as if fourteenth-cen- 
 tury conditions, repeated with all their horrors in 
 1894, were the means adopted by Providence to 
 shame the civilized w^orld into the performance of its 
 duty, and to stir the Christian conscience to a sense 
 of its neglect of it." 
 
 Mr. Depew's description of the heroism of the Ar- 
 menian women who, rather than be captured by the 
 Turks and suffer defilement, threw themselves into the 
 ravine which surrounded their village, moved the 
 audience deeply. He went on: 
 
 " The world has taken little note of this supreme 
 tragedy. Fifty years from now, and some painter 
 will become immortal by putting it upon canvas. A 
 few years, and some novelist will mount to enduring 
 fame by a romance, of which it will be the center. 
 A few years, and some poet will embalm it in verse 
 which will stand in literature alongside of the battle 
 
212 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 lyrics of Campbell, Macaulay, and Tennyson. Some 
 orator will give to the narrative and its lesson a setting • 
 and an inspiration, so that from the stage of the school 
 and the academy, from the lips of the boys and the 
 girls, it will teach down the centuries the triumphs 
 of patriotism and faith. 
 
 '' Yesterday an old man of world-wide fame cel- 
 ebrated his eighty-fifth birthday. He had been the 
 ruler of the British Empire — he is a private citizen. 
 Among the utterances which he deemed appropriate, 
 in reply to the congratulations which came to him 
 from every land, was an indignant protest against 
 the outrages against the Armenian Christians, and a 
 demand upon the Christian people of the earth to 
 compel their governments to call upon Turkey for a 
 halt. 
 
 " This warning and appeal from the lips of Mr. 
 Gladstone was flashed across continents and under 
 oceans; it penetrated cabinets, it thundered in the 
 ears of sovereigns, and through the great journals it 
 thrilled every household and every church of every 
 race and of every tongue, 
 
 " To-morrow — aye, to-day — Rosebery is con- 
 sulting with the French Premier, and France and Eng- 
 land are speaking to the Emperor of Germany, and 
 the young Czar and the King of Italy, and the Em- 
 peror of Austria for united action, which will 
 bring the Turk to mercy, peace, and liberty for the 
 Armenian Christian without destroying the equili- 
 brium of Europe. 
 
 " We seek no foreign alliances, we court no inter- 
 national complications, but we claim the right under 
 the Fatherhood of God to demand for our brother and 
 our sister in the distant East, law, justice, and the 
 exercise of conscience." 
 
 Dr. Greer then read resolutions expressing sympa- 
 
THE GREAT POWERS AND ARMENIA. 213 
 
 thy for the Armenians, and protesting against further 
 outrages. The document closes as follows: 
 
 " Resolved, That we hereby extend our deepest sympathy 
 to the Armenian people who, for their Christian faith, have 
 repeatedly suffered unspeakable cruelties from their Turkish 
 rulers and Kurdish neighbors; 
 
 " Resolved, That we hereby express to our Christian 
 brethren in England and on the continent, who are en- 
 deavoring to investigate these outrages and to bring the 
 perpetrators of them to justice, our hearty good-will and 
 godspeed. We hope and believe that they will not pause 
 until the extent of these atrocities is clearly ascertained 
 and the responsibility for them finally fixed; 
 
 " Resolved, That in their efforts to provide against the re- 
 currence of similar acts of oppression in the future, they 
 shall receive our hearty and unwavering moral support; 
 
 " Resolved, That we earnestly call upon our Christian 
 fellow-citizens everywhere throughout the country to organ- 
 ize and express an indignant and universal protest against 
 the continuance of a state of affairs under which it is 
 possible for women and children to be murdered simply be- 
 cause they are Christians." 
 
 The resolutions were adopted by a rising vote, 
 and the Rev. Dr. Tiffany, Archdeacon of ^ew York, 
 pronounced the benediction. 
 
 Very many such mass meetings were held in dif- 
 ferent cities of the United States. The U. S. Senate 
 discussed the question and made similar resolutions. 
 Mr. Call submitted the following as a substitute for 
 the committee resolutions: 
 
 *' 'That humanity and religion, and theprinciples on which 
 all civilization rests, demand that the civilized governments 
 shall, by peaceful negotiations, or, if necessary, by force of 
 arms, prevent and suppress the cruelties and massacres in- 
 flicted on the Armenian subjects of Turkey, by the establish- 
 ment of a government of their own people, with such guaran- 
 tees by the civilized powers of its authority and permanence 
 as shall be adequate to that end.' " 
 
 All these resolutions, both of the people and the 
 Senate, went to President Cleveland, but he has not 
 seen fit to act on them. It would be absurd to impute 
 this to weakness or unwillingness to decide a new ques- 
 
214 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 tion: Mr. Cleveland, whatever his limitations, has 
 never lacked firmness or decision. Doubtless it is be- 
 cause he thinks this country ought not to break away 
 from its old traditions and involve itself with Euro- 
 pean concerns. But this is not a European concern; 
 it is European, Asiatic, American, the world's; the 
 concern of all humanity, not to say Christianity. 
 
 It concerns the lives and result of sixty years' 
 work of American missionaries; the government can- 
 not wash its hands of all concern or responsibility for 
 them, and alone of all great powers declare that its 
 Christian citizens may not spread Christianity. And 
 a great and rich nation has no more right to go off 
 with its hands in its pockets, and declare that it has 
 no obligation to the well-being of the world, than a 
 great, rich man has a right to declare that he has no 
 obligation to society. The rich man only keeps his 
 money because there is a civilized society with laws 
 and policemen to protect him in it; this nation only 
 keeps at peace because other nations' civilization and 
 international law prevent a great combination to plun- 
 der it. It ought to accept its share of the general 
 social duty — man the fire pumps, and do police work 
 if needed; and not let a thug murder one of its com- 
 panions — nay, relatives — before its eyes. It is 
 bound as a Christian state not to let a bloody and 
 sensual Mohammedan barbarism extinguish the light 
 of a sister Christian community; it is bound as a na- 
 tion of civilized beings not to let a horde of savages 
 like its own Indians stamp out a civilized nation mil- 
 
THE GREAT POWERS AND ARMENIA. 215 
 
 lions in number by horrors unspeakable, every atroc- 
 ity of butchery, and rape, and torture that ever sprung 
 from the cruelty or the lust of man. These things 
 are as awful, as hideous to the Armenians as they 
 would be to you if fifty thousand Indians overflowed 
 Colorado and inflicted them on your American fam- 
 ilies. What would you feel and do if most of that 
 State were turned into a burnt desolation, with here 
 and there a cabin standing, Denver half obliterated 
 and ten thousand of its inhabitants slaughtered in 
 cold blood, hundreds impaled, or burnt, or flayed 
 alive, the sistex's and daughters of your own house- 
 holds by thousands violated over and over, thousands 
 made slaves and concubines in the wigwams of dirty 
 Indian brutes, and others wandering as naked beggars 
 in the wintry snows about the ruins of their once happy 
 homes ? Yet this is a picture of what happened over 
 part of Armenia; can you think it is of no concern to 
 you ? Ought Congress and the President to think it 
 of no concern to them ? Surely there are some things 
 where national lines ought not to count. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland has been unfortunate in his advisers, 
 partly chosen by himself, and partly inherited. Min- 
 ister Terrill has taken the word of the Sultan and the 
 palace clique, and made no attempt to investigate for 
 himself; consequently he is full of respect for the 
 Mohammedans, and scorn for the Armenians. Ad- 
 miral Kirtland visited a few seaports, found the Ar- 
 menians there working as usual (of course — the mas- 
 sacres were carried on where news could be inter- 
 
216 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 cepted and suppressed by the Turks), and reports that 
 lie didn't find any evidence of outrages or disorders, 
 and considers the stories false, or much exaggerated. 
 And such lazy or prejudiced negatives as these are 
 to be counted as outweighing the sworn official re- 
 ports of consuls on the spot, and of pitiful letters from 
 the survivors among the very victims themselves ! 
 
 I have said that Mr. Cleveland does not lack firm- 
 ness. He does not in internal policy, but he cer- 
 tainly did not show enough in the matter of these 
 atrocities. The Sultan asked him to nominate a com- 
 missioner to join those of other powers in inves- 
 tigating the Sassoun massacres. He appointed Milo 
 A. Jewett, consul at Sivas; but Mr. Jewett was much 
 too keen and forcible a man for the Sultan, who re- 
 fused to let him take his place on the commission. Mr. 
 Cleveland did not insist, as he ought. The very fact 
 that the Sultan did not want it, was the best of reasons 
 for persisting. 
 
 Again, last year, the Senate voted to send two 
 more consuls to Armenia; Mr. Cleveland appointed 
 Messrs. Chilton and Hunter to go to Erzeroum and 
 Harpoot respectively, but the Sultan refused to accept 
 them, and they had to come back. To consent to this 
 was wrong and weak; the American government 
 should firmly declare its right to protect its own in- 
 terests in its own way. 
 
 But the President will act if the American people 
 will stand at his back. When will they send forth 
 a mandate that these horrors must stop ? 
 
\ 
 
ClU«;A88iAXS. 
 
 GEOllOlANa 
 
VI. 
 
 THE CAUSES OF THE ATKOCITIES. 
 
 THE GREAT QUESTION. 
 
 The Armenian atrocities can never be fully under- 
 stood by those who may be born in a free land, where 
 there are no Turks, no Kurds, no Circassians, no Geor- 
 gians, no Zeibecks, and no Mohammedan religion, with 
 its oppressions and persecutions. 
 
 Why the Sultan orders the Turks, Kurds, or other 
 followers to destroy the Armenians, whereby more 
 than 100,000 of them have recently been killed, and 
 500,000 been rendered homeless and left to die of star- 
 vation in the streets and fields, or why the Sultan 
 ordered all who are spared to accept the Mohammedan 
 religion, is never referred to with any sort of correct- 
 ness by the newspapers or periodicals in their accounts 
 of the dreadful atrocities taking place in Armenia, and 
 therefore the people are left in ignorance and doubt 
 respecting the true situation both as to the causes and 
 the atrocities themselves. 
 
 FIRST CAUSE. 
 
 The first cause is a very simple one. That the Ar- 
 menians are Christians, and the Turks, Kurds, Circas- 
 sians, and Georgians in Turkey are Mohammedans, 
 
 and the Mohammedan religion urges brutality. It 
 
 (217) 
 
218 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 has already been sliown to be not a religion, but a 
 system of falsehood, hatred, cruelty, lust, and sensual- 
 ity; of course, these things combined can only result 
 in corruption. It would seem that Mohammed must 
 have taken his inspiration from both the domestic fowl 
 and a bull. A rooster is a polygamist; he has his hens 
 without limit. So Mohammed, the professed prophet, 
 had wives without limit. He claimed to have received 
 a revelation from Heaven directing him to take to him- 
 self any woman he pleased, no matter whether she was 
 married and had a husband or not; that made no dif- 
 ference with Mohammed. He took any woman he 
 wanted, and if her husband objected he was sure to 
 be put to death. Mohammedans cannot differ from 
 their prophet, they follow him, they strive to imitate 
 him just as much as true Christians strive to follow 
 and imitate Christ. Further, cocks, as a rule, have 
 crowing spells five times in twenty-four hours, and gen- 
 erally mount a high place and do their screaming there. 
 So the Mohammedan priests, who are called Moezzins, 
 ascend a minaret, or a tow^er, and five times in twenty 
 four hours they call the people to worship. There 
 is so little confidence placed in the priests or criers 
 that the people prefer to have a blind one go on the 
 minaret to give the calls, so that he may not see their 
 women unveiled in their houses. 
 
 From a bull, because he is not onty immoderately 
 lustful, but fierce and destructive; and the farmers 
 say that the older he grows, the Avorse he is in both re- 
 spects. It is certainly so with Mohammedans^, — 
 
THE CAUSES OF THE ATROCITIES. 219 
 
 naturally enough, for nothing is so lickerish as an old 
 man who has been sensual all his life, and cruelty is a 
 trait which grows wdth indulgence. The Sultan grows 
 more of a beast, and more of a fiend as he grows older, 
 and all the Mohammedans are of the same stripe. 
 Armenian men and Armenian women alike dread the 
 approach of an old Turk far more than of a young 
 one. Unless one has witnessed a fight between bulls, 
 he can have little idea of Turkish warfare. No animal 
 fight can approach it in ferocity or insatiability; when 
 a bull conquers another, he never leaves him until he 
 gores him to death. So when Mohammedans conquer 
 a nation, be sure they will exterminate it. To them 
 mercy means apostasy; to leave a man alive or a woman 
 unravished is to be false to the precepts of Mohammed. 
 They cannot help it, it is their religion; a religion 
 for wild animals. Their priests go to the mosques and 
 preach to them thus: " Believers in Mohammed, love 
 your fellow believers, but hate and kill all others ; they 
 are Giaours, heathen dogs, filthy hogs.'^ To kill a 
 Christian and to kill a hog is all the same to a Moham- 
 medan; there is as little sin in one as the other. The 
 priests say, " Ask them to accept our religion; if they 
 do, you must not harm them ; but if they will not, kill 
 them, for they have no right to live in a Mohammedan 
 country. It is not only no sin, but a great virtue; the 
 more Christians you kill, the greater reward you will 
 have from Allah and his prophet Mohammed.'' The 
 Turks are slaughtering the Armenians to earn this re- 
 ward. Of course if the men apostatize they are 
 
220 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 spared; but the Turk has no notion of losing the grat- 
 ification of his lust on the women in that way. A 
 woman who falls into their hands need not hope to 
 keep her virtue on any terms, even by abjuring her 
 religion ; they violate her first, and force her to become 
 a Mohammedan afterwards. 
 
 Let it be fully understood throughout the Chris- 
 tian world that the massacre is a religious demand; 
 the Turks have to comply. As a Christian tries to be 
 faithful to Christ and his teachings, so the Turks are 
 trying to be faithful to their prophet and his. They 
 go to the mosques and pray, " Allah, help us; 
 strengthen our hands and sharpen our swords to kill 
 the infidel Armenians." Then they come from the 
 mosques and begin to kill, and plunder, and outrage, 
 and commit every sort of indescribable atrocities on the 
 peaceable and defenseless Armenians. And it will 
 grow worse instead of better, since so-called Christian 
 nations have given the Sultan public notice that they 
 will not interfere wdtli him. Do not be deceived by 
 his lying reports; there was no Armenian rebellion; 
 they could not rebel ; they did not kill the Turks, they 
 never dreamed of such madness. This awful fate has 
 fallen on them purely and simply for being Christians. 
 
 SECOND CAUSE. 
 
 This seems frivolous and incredible, but it is true; 
 namely, a dream of the Sultan. 
 
 Some six years ago, a report was circulated in Con- 
 stantinople about this dream. It was, that in his sleep 
 
THE CAUSES OF THE ATROCITIES. 221 
 
 the Sultan saw a little tree planted in the center of 
 his kingdom. It began to grow larger and larger, 
 till it covered the whole Turkish Empire, and over- 
 shadowed even the mountains. All the nations of 
 Turkey dwelt under its glorious and majestic shade. 
 Still it grew, till the branches crossed the oceans and 
 covered all the other kingdoms, finally the wdiole 
 world. He woke, but the dream troubled him deeply, 
 and he called some of the ulemas or wise men, of whom 
 he always has a number in his palace, to interpret it 
 for him. They explained it by saying that the tree 
 was Christianity; Christian missionary work in the 
 heart of his empire. It was a menace to his throne 
 and country, and would grow till it covered the world. 
 The Sultan, alarmed and angry, asked what he should 
 do. The ulemas advised him to cut it down while it 
 was small, and he has been doing his best to follow 
 their advice. He did not dare to kill the missionaries, 
 but he is accomplishing the same result by destroying 
 their churches and schools and forbidding any more 
 to be built, confiscating all religious books, and killing 
 the native Christian ministers. He has employed 
 every device to force the missionaries to depart by 
 paralyzing their work; if they chose to stay, he would 
 accuse them of inciting the natives to revolt. He has 
 succeeded so far; plunder, burning, torture, murder, 
 violation and forced conversion of Christian women, 
 have practically put an end to missionary work. Now 
 the time has come to kill the missionaries; and he will 
 very likely find some excuse for doing it — he has 
 
222 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 an arsenal of falsehoods always at his command. 
 Quite likely he will say the Armenians killed them, and 
 then murder more Armenians in reprisal. His cun- 
 ning is as infinite as his cruelty. He gives a charter 
 to a missionary institution and destroys ten others. He 
 invites Minister Terrell to the palace, gives him grand 
 receptions, and loads him w^ith promises and flatteries, 
 and all the time goes on obliterating the schools and 
 churches and killing the native pastors. He creates 
 a ruin; when the European powers protest, he says he 
 will make amends, and he does it by perpetrating a 
 greater one, in which the first is forgotten. He mas- 
 sacres hundreds in a city ; when the powers protest, he 
 says he will restore order, and does it by ordering thou- 
 sands killed in another city, and the first is again for- 
 gotten. His atrocities increase as he finds that he 
 is to be unmolested; he is resolute to cut down that 
 spreading tree, and has already cut thousands of 
 branches from it. And the Christian nations look on 
 and say they cannot help it. They know perfectly 
 well Avhat is going on, but their ^' interests " of one 
 sort or another will not permit them to remove that 
 awful blot on civilization. 
 
 THIRD CAUSE. 
 
 The Mohammedan population in Turkey is decreas- 
 ing, and the Christians are increasing. When the 
 present Sultan captured the throne from his brother 
 Murad, Turkey had 40,000,000 people; as soon as he 
 girded the sword of Osman, he began the great battle 
 
THE CAUSES OF THE ATROCITIES. 223 
 
 with Kussia, and after the Turko-Russian war he found 
 hmiself with 18,000,000. Who are the lost ? Rou- 
 mania, Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herze- 
 govina, a part of Macedonia, Cyprus, and a part of 
 Armenia. Practically the whole of Europe was lost 
 for Turkey except Constantinople and the district 
 Edirne or Adrianople. Turkey is not an empire any 
 more, but it is a little kingdom; rather a little feudal 
 system, or more accurately still, a little anarchy. If 
 it were not for mutual European jealousy, the Sultan 
 could not keep his anarchism. Yet many still think 
 that the Ottoman Empire is a great one, a pow^erful 
 government. They look at the Sultan and his domin- 
 ion through a magnifying glass. This shows ignor- 
 ance. The Turks are decayed and are decaying. The 
 sick man of Turkey is the dead man of Turkey, and 
 ought to be buried, but the European powers do not 
 bury him because there are precious stones and jewelry 
 in the coffin; no matter how bad the corpse smells, 
 they will endure it. And the bad smell of the Sultan 
 is killing hundreds of thousands of Christians ; but the 
 dead stays where it is, and may stay for some years, 
 but the end will come before many have gone by. 
 When I say that the days of the Sultan are numbered, 
 and the brutal Turkish mis-rule will cease, many Amer- 
 icans will rejoin ^^that the same has often been said long 
 years since, though the empire remains to-day, and 
 seems likely to remain." The fact is, however, that 
 during my own life more than half of it has gone to 
 pieces, and the fragment which remains Avill go to 
 
224 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 pieces soon. Permit me to say tliat all former proph- 
 ecies have been mistaken because those who made 
 them have judged and misjudged the situation from 
 an occidental standpoint; I judge it from that of a 
 native, who knows the realities as only a native can. 
 What, can an English ambassador or an American min- 
 ister in Constantinople, staying perhaps two or three 
 years, and entertained and decorated by the crafty 
 Sultan, know about the internal state of Turkey ? 
 Having traveled through the country, lived and 
 preached for years at a time; preached in different 
 cities, including Constantinople, I can see signs of a 
 break-up that a foreigner would not notice. 
 
 The reason the Turkish population does not in- 
 crease is this: The army has to be made up of Mo- 
 hammedans, partly because the Sultan does not put 
 arms into the hands of the Christians, for obvious rea- 
 sons, since they have no motive to uphold and every 
 motive to fight him, and partly because to be a soldier 
 in Turkey is a holy service, the privilege of Mohamme- 
 dans alone. As there is a large standing army, nearly 
 all the Mohammedan youths have to become soldiers. 
 Their service begins when they are about twenty years 
 old. The shortest term is five years; for many it is 
 ten; and even after that, there are many who cannot 
 escape. If a young Mohammedan is not married at 
 twenty, obviously he cannot marry until twenty-five 
 anyway, and perhaps thirty, — very late for a country 
 population; if he is married his wife is virtually a 
 widow for five to ten years. Now the reader can 
 
THE CAUSES OF THE ATROCITIES. 225 
 
 see mj drift. With marriages so late, and husbands 
 so long absent, Turkish families are small; they do 
 not make good the deaths. And there is a still plainer 
 cause: The soldiers being very poorly fed, and con- 
 stant fighting going on, ninety per cent, die in the 
 army, and so never have any families; the flower of 
 the nation perishes barren. Those who survive and 
 return are pale and sick, good for nothing, a burden 
 to their families and to the nation. The Armenians 
 have to support the Sultan's army, since they do not 
 furnish it, but they rear families, and are drowning 
 out the Turks. 
 
 Another cause of decrease is the pilgrimage to 
 Mecca, where Mohammed was born. On an average, 
 a million pilgrims go there every year, — of course not 
 all from Turkey, but most of them, and every year 
 about 50,000 of them die of cholera before reaching 
 home, from the Holy Well (Zemzem sooyi), which is 
 full of unholy foulness ; even those who live and return 
 home take that water to their families, and many of 
 the latter die too. Cholera is perpetual in Turkey, and 
 it originates at Mecca. When I was in Marsovan 
 twelve at one time went on the pilgrimage and only 
 four returned. It is a great virtue to die where Mo- 
 hammed was born, or to drink that water and die, 
 and they are going to him at a rapid rate. Last year, 
 when the English, Russian, and French consuls at 
 Jiddeh, the seaport of Mecca, established a quarantine 
 to detain those coming from Mecca and bringing 
 cholera, they were murdered by the Mohammedan 
 
226 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Arabs, wlio said they were interfering with the 
 sacred religion, and the Sultan had to pay the in- 
 demnity. 
 
 Still another reason is the shocking increase of 
 abortions among the wealthy town dwellers. The 
 Mohammedan women are growing to love selfish in- 
 dulgences better than the duties and delights of 
 motherhood. They do not wish to be '^ bothered " by 
 children, and they take medicine to prevent having 
 them. Where the women come to this, it is better for 
 a race to die out; they have outlived their purpose. 
 
 A fourth cause is polygamy. People naturally 
 think that marrying more than one wife should increase 
 the number of children; but the facts emphatically 
 prove the reverse. The polygamous Turks do not in- 
 crease as fast as the Christians who have but one wife. 
 
 For the fifth, the Turks are an exceedingly sensual 
 race, by nature and education, as I have shown. The 
 very religion that should help to make them pure, helps 
 to make them vile. Lust leads them, and they follow ; 
 nature prompts, and their religion requires it. I am 
 tt'uly ashamed to tell it, but even when they go to their 
 mosques to worship, they manifest their sensuality. 
 'Not only the relations of male and female are very 
 rank, but between male and male they are worse; be- 
 tween the old Turks and young Turks, the very boys, 
 the relations are too disgusting to describe. All such 
 moral corruptions not only weaken a people's forces 
 morally, but physically as well ; they substitute barren 
 
THE CAUSES OF THE ATROCITIES. 227 
 
 lusts for legitimate gratifications, selfish passions for 
 mutual ones. 
 
 Hence the Mohammedans are fast decreasing in 
 Turkey, and the Sultan is terrified, and hopes by kill- 
 ing a large part of the Christians, and forcing the sur- 
 vivors to accept Mohammedanism, that their power 
 of multiplication may be the boon of a Mohammedan 
 people. Out of the 18,000,000 inhabitants of Tur- 
 key, 6,000,000 are native Christians, about half of 
 them Armenians. This leaves only 12,000,000 for 
 the whole Mohammedan population in the present 
 Turkish dominion; and it grows less, wdiile the Chris- 
 tian part grows greater. To check this increase, the 
 Sultan a few years ago made the obtaining of a mar- 
 riage certificate compulsory, and the Turkish authori- 
 ties have understood that they are to make it as hard as 
 possible to get; it has cost great sums of money to ob- 
 tain it. But for many months now, there have been 
 no marriages at all in Armenia ; the authorities will not 
 grant certificates on any terms, and to prevent any 
 more Christians being born, the daughters and young 
 brides of the murdered thousands are made mothers 
 through violation by the Turks and Kurds. 
 
 The Christians have been increasing not only from 
 within, but from without. Europeans have begun to 
 go wherever railroads go. Hence another reason for 
 massacre and forced conversion. That the Sultan has 
 been planning this massacre ever since the Turko-Rus- 
 sian war is evidenced by the fact that after the war he 
 encouraged or ordered a number of Mohamme- 
 
228 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 dan tribes — Circassians, Georgians, Kurds, and 
 Lazes — to emigrate from Russia to Armenia, con- 
 fiscated masses of Christians' property, and gave 
 it to them, and directed them to reduce the 
 number of Armenian Christians by any way they 
 saw fit, giving them full license to do what 
 they would with Armenians, without penalty. You 
 know what that means with fierce tribes of human wild 
 animals, cruel and foul, and he knew what it meant 
 too, and intended it to mean that. Before his time 
 the Christians far outnumbered the Mohammedans in 
 Armenia proper; but under his ^' government " — his 
 deliberate policy of extermination — great numbers 
 fled the country, numbers were killed and their women 
 made concubines to Mohammedans, and now the Mo- 
 hammedans are more numerous in Armenia than the 
 Armenian Christians. And if the Sultan is permitted 
 to go on, he will kill a million more, the rest will be 
 ^' converted," and then he will call the attention of 
 the European powers to this fact, and say, ^' See here, 
 you ask me to reform Armenia ; Armenia is reformed. 
 There is no Armenia; there are no Armenians; the 
 people in that part of my empire are Mohammedans, 
 and they are satisfied with my government. What do 
 you want from me ? What right have you to inter- 
 fere with my country and religion ? " That is his 
 plan. When the Berlin Congress was held, the Ar- 
 menians v/ere the majority in their own country, and 
 the Congress decided on reforms for it; the Sultan 
 promised them, with the full intention of depopulating 
 
THE CAUSES OF THE ATROCITIES. 220 
 
 and converting it, and then telling tlie powers there 
 was no need of reform there. He is doing this now 
 incessantly, and as remorselessly as a fiend. 
 
 FOURTH CAUSE. 
 
 The Armenians are rich and educated, and the 
 Mohammedans are poor and ignorant. The Turks 
 have never cared for money or education. They have 
 always said, '' Let the Christians make the money, 
 and we will take it from them whenever we choose. 
 We will be the rulers, the soldiers, the police ; we will 
 have the sword in our hands. Then their property, 
 and their women too, will be ours at will, and we can 
 force them to become Mohammedans." Such being 
 their reasoning, they took good care of their swords 
 and their guns, which were furnished to them from 
 Europe and the United States. The Christian Ar- 
 menians believing that the great Christian powers 
 would never permit the Turks to wreak their murder- 
 ous and shameful will on them, did not risk the ven- 
 geance of the Turks by secretly buying weapons, nor 
 train themselves in the use of arms. They trained 
 their minds, got education, traveled in Europe and 
 this United States, enlightened themselves in every 
 way they could ; they sharpened their intellects rather 
 than their swords. They learned to make money also ; 
 they established all the business houses in Turkey; 
 all the Turks that get employment in the cities get it 
 from the Armenian merchants. As far as Turkey has 
 any finances, they are in the hands of Armenians. Go 
 
230 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 where you will in Turkey, seaboard or interior, all tlie 
 money and education belong to the Armenians, pov- 
 erty and ignorance are the portion of the Turks. 
 IsTinety per cent, of the Armenians know how to read 
 and write, while ninety per cent, of the Turks do not. 
 Sixty per cent, of the Mohammedan property has 
 been sold to the Christian Armenians within twenty 
 years. When I was in Armenia, the Mohammedans 
 were ahvays selling and the Christians always buying. 
 One day a Turk was going to sell his field to an Armen- 
 ian, and they wxnt to the government office to make 
 the transfer. The officer in charge said he could not 
 transfer the property of a Mohammedan to a Chris- 
 tian. This was something new. ^^ Why is that ? " 
 they asked. " The governor forbids it,'' said the of- 
 ficer, ^' he told me that hereafter it should not be 
 done." Finally both went to the governor and asked 
 him why he forbade it. The governor replied, ^' Of 
 late the Armenians have bought up the fields of the 
 Mohammedans, till they own the greater part of them; 
 if we let them go on they will own everything, and the 
 Mohammedans will be left without property. There- 
 fore I forbid it; no Mohammedan shall hereafter sell 
 any property to a Christian." He told the Turk he 
 might sell his field to another Mohammedan, but not 
 to a Christian. '' All right," said the Turk, " I will 
 sell it to you, then, at the same price, or maybe a little 
 less; will you buy it ? I need the money to support 
 my family." " I cannot buy it," said the governor; "I 
 have no money." " I know that," replied the Turk; 
 
THE CAUSES OF THE ATROCITIES. 231 
 
 " and not only you, but all the other Mohammedans 
 have no money either. They are all poor. I cannot 
 find any Turk who has the money to buy my field, and 
 I need money, and I have to sell it to that Christian.'' 
 Finally the governor was forced to give the permission, 
 and the Armenian bought the field. This is only one 
 case, but it is typical. There are thousands of just 
 such. And this is another cause which aroused the 
 jealousy of the Sultan and his subordinates to order 
 the massacre of the Armenians, and the seizure of 
 their property. 
 
 I often hear it said in this country, " Let us help 
 the poor Armenians " ; and I feel very indignant. 
 Poor Armenians ! There are poor among the Ar- 
 menians, as among all nations; but the Armenians as 
 a body are not poor. They are the richest people in 
 Turkey. That is one reason why they are plundered 
 and killed. I do not want the American people to 
 help the Armenians as a poor, ignorant, miserable peo- 
 ple, but because they deserve help as a rich, noble, 
 Christian nation being rooted out by plunder and 
 murder, for the benefit of, and by means of a horde of 
 savages. I will illustrate by a very little story. 
 
 When Alexander the Great reached the moun- 
 tains of Afghanistan on his way to India, the Afghan 
 king refused to let him pass through his country. 
 After a great battle, and the slaughter of thousands 
 on both sides, Alexander was victorious. The king 
 himself was captured, and brought before Alexander, 
 who said to him, ^' You are my captive; how shall I 
 
232 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 treat jou ? " " As a king," said tlie prisoner. Alex- 
 ander was charmed with the dignity of the answer, and 
 replied, " You shall be treated as one, and a brave one. 
 I leave you on your throne ; but permit me to pass on 
 to India." So the king kept his royalty as before, 
 and Alexander continued his conquests. 
 
 Such is the Armenian question. They are a noble 
 people, an enterprising people, but captives in the 
 hands of the Turks. But the Turks have not the mag- 
 nanimity of Alexander. We need a nation which does 
 have it, to say to the Armenians, " Remain where you 
 are, in your ancient home, and rule there; govern 
 yourselves freely as a Christian nation. You have 
 fought centuries after centuries for home and honor, 
 and now we come to your help, to establish you on the 
 old Armenian throne." Do not help the Armenians 
 merely as a poor people, but help them because they 
 were rich, and now they are stripped and poor, with- 
 out fault of their own, from hate of their (and your) 
 religion, and envy of their superiority. 
 
 FIFTH CAUSE. 
 
 This is perhaps the greatest of all. It is the Amer- 
 ican missionary work in Armenia. It was in 1831 
 that the American Board of Foreign Missions estab- 
 lished the first Protestant mission there. Their pur- 
 pose was to send missionaries, not simply to the Ar- 
 menians, but to all classes and sects in Turkey. Those 
 pioneer American missionaries were among the noblest 
 of men, and greatest of teachers, preachers, and or- 
 
THE CAUSES OF THE ATROCITIES. 233 
 
 ganizers. I will name a few: Dr. Goodell, Dr. 
 Dwight, Dr. Scliaffler, Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, founder 
 of Robert College, living now at Lexington, Mass., 86 
 years old, one of the greatest missionaries ever born, 
 Dr. H. Van Lennep, another great missionary, greatly 
 beloved by the Armenians. Books could be written 
 about these Christian chiefs, towhom, and to the Amer- 
 ican people who sent them, we Armenians are grate- 
 ful. When Dr. Van Lennep died at Great Barring- 
 ton, Mass., about six years ago, the author was raising- 
 money here to build a church in Armenia, as already 
 told. He went to condole with Mrs. Van Lennep, 
 and told her not to put any monument over the doctor's 
 grave. He would see the other Armenians, and as a 
 grateful people they would erect him a beautiful one. 
 He kept his word, and his faith was justified; they 
 raised the funds and put up the monument. It 
 stands in the cemetery at Great Barrington, with the 
 following inscription : — 
 
 Henry John Van Lennep, D.D. 
 
 1815 — 1889. 
 
 For Thirty Years Missionary in Turkey. 
 
 This monument is erected by his Armenian friends in grate- 
 ful appreciation of his heroic virtues, and endearing services 
 rendered to their people. 
 
 The beloved Missionary 
 
 Van Lennep. 
 
 When the noble missionaries went to Turkey, the 
 Turks hated them, the Jews hated them, the Greeks 
 hated them, and these three peoples hate them still. 
 
234 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 But tlie Armenians welcomed them; they loved and 
 esteemed them, and they love and esteem them more 
 than ever now. The question is often asked " Are 
 not the Armenians a Christian people ? Then why 
 did the missionaries go there ? '' Yes, they are; but 
 still they needed the missionaries, and need them now 
 more than ever. Why ? Well, for two reasons. 
 Their churches and schools having been destroyed by 
 the long oppression by the Turks, they needed help 
 from a sister Christian church to help them educate 
 themselves, and build up churches, schools, and col- 
 leges, benevolent institutions, printing offices. The 
 missionaries have done that great work in Armenia, 
 but I am sorry to say that some of their creations have 
 been destroyed by the Turks during the recent atroci- 
 ties. 
 
 The second reason is that the Armenian church 
 stood in great need of reformation. I have already 
 explained in this book (see " The Armenian Church ") 
 how in the last desperate struggle for national exis- 
 tence, a part of the people reluctantly accepted help 
 from the Pope of Rome, at the price of uniting with 
 the Roman church, and using its rituals, images, etc. 
 Hence, in many of the Armenian churches there was 
 no pure gospel preaching ; rituals were the leading ele- 
 ment of the services. There was therefore great need 
 that such preaching should be introduced ; the mission- 
 aries did so, and the Armenian church has been greatly 
 reformed. My purpose here is not to write a church 
 history, nor to give an account of missionary work in 
 
THE CAUSES OF THE ATROCITIES. 235 
 
 Turkey. I mention it incidentally as a chief cause of 
 the atrocities. 
 
 The missionaries have trained both boys and girls 
 in their schools for sixty-five years now; many thou- 
 sands of them. The Turks have not been permitted 
 to go to them, the Greeks are too proud to send their 
 children, but the Armenians were hungry for educa- 
 tion, especially for an xlmerican education. The 
 new-born baby of the time when the missionaries ar- 
 rived is now sixty-five years old, with his American 
 .education, which has wonderfully elevated the Ar- 
 menians, and turned Armenia almost into a second 
 America, educationally. The American colleges in 
 different parts of Turkey are great centers of light; 
 about ninety per cent, of the students and the leading 
 native professors and teachers are Armenians. I will 
 mention a few: Robert College and the Woman's 
 College in Constantinople; the Ladies' Seminary in 
 Smyrnia; Anatolia College, the Ladies' Seminary, 
 and the Theological Seminary in Marsovan; the 
 writer's pastorate, Central Turkey College and the 
 Ladies' College at Aintab, Euphrates College (first 
 called Armenia College, but the name is forbidden by 
 the Turks, as encouraging Armenian independence) 
 and the Ladies' Department at Harpoot ; the Academy 
 and the Theological Seminary at Marash, where I 
 studied three years; the colleges both for girls and 
 boys at Beirut; and many high schools and primary 
 schools throughout Armenia. The American Bible 
 House i(; a great depot of Christian literature. These 
 
236 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 are all American Christian institutions, and nine-tentlis 
 of tlieir inmates are Armenians. 
 
 The reader can clearly see how the Armenians 
 have become a wholly new race ; they have had the ad- 
 vantage of American education, and it has revolution- 
 ized the nation. It has elevated, refined, and pros- 
 pered them. This great improvement among the Ar- 
 menians aroused the jealousy of the Sultan and his 
 underlings. He first began to close the schools; then 
 to imprison the native Armenian teachers and preach- 
 ers; then to kill the Armenians and destroy the mission-* 
 ary institutions, that no Armenian may be left to go 
 to any American school, and that if any escapes, there 
 may be no American school to receive him. I con- 
 sider this missionary education the very greatest cause 
 for the atrocities, and the Armenian bishops agree 
 with me. Here is what the Armenian bishop of Oorf a 
 (Edessa), where about 8,000 Armenians we^e mas- 
 sacred, has to say : 
 
 TO THE AMERICANS. 
 
 "March 12, 1896. 
 
 " We have been strenuously opposed to your mis- 
 sion work among us, but these bloody days have proven 
 that some of our Protestant brothers have been staunch 
 defenders of our honor and faith. You at least know 
 that our crime, in the eyes of the Turk, has been that 
 we have adopted the civilization you commended. 
 Behold the missions and schools which you planted 
 among us, and which cost millions of dollars, and hun- 
 dreds of precious lives, now in ruins. The Turk ia 
 
THE CAUSES OF THE ATROCITIES. 237 
 
 planning to rid himself of missionaries and teachers by 
 leaving them nobody to labor among." 
 
 It is very significant that wherever there was a mis- 
 sionary institution, and especially a missionary Theo- 
 logical Seminary to train Armenian ministers, there 
 has been the greatest atrocity. This shows how the 
 Sultan hates Americans, and American education. 
 There are nearly two hundred American male and fe- 
 male missionaries in Turkey. They are in great dan- 
 ger. The Turks have determined to kill them, and 
 the Sultan can no longer control them, for he gave the 
 order and put the sword into their hands. The Kurds 
 and the Turks say, " The missionaries have better 
 things than the Armenians had. We killed the Ar- 
 menians and got their valuables, and we enjoy them. 
 We are richer now, and we did not work for it ; w^e did 
 not waste time in hard labor; the only thing we had to 
 do was to obey the Sultan and kill the Armenians and 
 get their property. Why not kill the Americans and 
 get richer ? " Reader, keep in your mind that the 
 Turks will kill the missionaries also. The horrible 
 time is coming, in spite of what your minister to Tur- 
 key says, and partly because he believes Turkish lies, 
 and says there was no need of sending missionaries 
 there. 
 
 Another point worthy of consideration is this: 
 Russia and Turkey made an alliance. Russia is as 
 much opposed to the missionaries as Turkey is, and per- 
 haps the Czar is secretly encouraging the Sultan to get 
 rid of them. Undoubtedly Russia is trying to get rid 
 
238 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 of Protestant influence in Turkey, and therefore sac- 
 rifices the old Protestant Armenian nation to Turkey. 
 In my beUef, the time is coining when the Protestant 
 nations will unite and protest practically against the 
 outrages of Turkey and Russia. They have no right 
 to persecute Turks or Russians, but they have a perfect 
 right to protect an old Protestant church and the 
 American missionaries. No matter how much it costs, 
 it pays to protect them, and, pay or no pay, it is the 
 duty of America and England to unite and protect 
 them. And if England and America should really 
 unite, Turkey and Russia will yield. I do not at 
 all concur with Americans who favor Russia and hate 
 England. Lord Salisbury is too timid to do it, but 
 Lord Salisbury is not England. The English people 
 are a noble people, and if the American noble people 
 unite with them, they can accomplish a great work 
 for God and humanity, for peace and liberty, for free- 
 dom and happiness in Armenia. 
 
 As far as I can judge, the foregoing are the causes 
 of the atrocities in Armenia. Perhaps there may be 
 other minor ones, but they are not worthy of discus- 
 sion. 
 
■f- Kf'llIM 'HI BFS- 
 
 KCKfJ WOMAN. 
 
THE TUKKISH ATROCITIES IN^ ARMENIA. 
 
 THE BEGINNING. 
 
 Turkish atrocities in Armenia are no new thing; 
 they have gone on for centuries, and left but a fraction 
 of the population it once had. But let us disregard 
 old history, and come to the subject of to-day. Prac- 
 tically that begins with Hamid II, the present Sultan. 
 He began his persecutions nearly twenty years ago, but 
 on a small scale. He has continually devised new meth- 
 ods of getting rid of the Armenians without responsi- 
 bility; finally he hit on the plan of arming the Kurds 
 and letting them loose with full power to do their 
 worst. When I was in Constantinople he summoned 
 the Kurdish chiefs, hundreds of them — I have seen 
 them with my own eyes — entertained them in the 
 palace, armed them with modern rifles, and sent them 
 to Armenia on their mission. The pretense under 
 which he did it was worthy of him: he called them 
 the " Hamidieh Cavalry," and pretended that they 
 , were a sort of mounted police, who were to keep order 
 and protect the Armenians. This was exactly as 
 though a regiment of red Indians should be armed and 
 sent to Oregon to protect the inhabitants, and called, 
 say, the Presidential Guard, and the Armenians knew 
 
 well what they were for. But the European travel- 
 
 (239) 
 
240 AKMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 ers and newspaper correspondents took it all seriously, 
 and talked of his '^ civilizing the Kurds," etc. E^ow 
 these were only the chiefs; each chief had a large fol- 
 lowing of tribesmen, so that about 30,000 Kurds in 
 all Avere given arms and ordered to go to work extermi- 
 nating the Armenians. This work began in 1891, but 
 on a small scale, and in a very crafty way, so that it 
 should not have the appearance of a premeditated 
 massacre ; then it was stopped till about sixteen months 
 ago, when they were encouraged to begin again, pub- 
 licly, and with full swing. It was decided to begin 
 in Sassoun, a district far from the sea, with no roads 
 and a sparse population ; if successful in escaping report 
 there, he could carry out the massacre through all 
 Armenia, for which " reforms " were asked and prom- 
 ished. He ordered Zekii Pasha to have his soldiers 
 ready, and meantime to have the " Hamidieh Cav- 
 alry " the Kurdish chiefs and tribesmen, ready to at- 
 tack and kill all the Armenians in Sassoun. This 
 city lies between Moosh and Bitlis, in a mountainous 
 country, and the Sassounites are a brave people, as 
 much so as the Zeitoonlis are. The district had about 
 sixty villages and towns, and about 20,000 people 
 sixteen months ago, but it has none now. The regular 
 soldiers and the armed Kurds surrounded the dis- 
 trict from all sides, and in about a month had slaugh- 
 tered the entire population. Tt was reported that 
 Zekii Pasha carried on his breast an order from the 
 Sultan as follows: ^^ Whoever spares man, woman, 
 or child is disloyal." After he had finished his task. 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 241 
 
 he received great rewards from the Sultan, and is now 
 one of his most esteemed commanders. 
 
 Zekii Pasha is said to have had 40,000 Kurds and 
 regular soldiers under his command when he began 
 the massacre. The people of Sassoun, knowing that 
 they were doomed, fought desperately^ They re- 
 pulsed the Kurds several times, and killed many of 
 them; but finally the regular soldiers took part, pre- 
 tending to come in aid of the Armenians, and overbore 
 them, killing all without quarter. The Sultan's order 
 was to spare neither man, woman, nor child; but as 
 the men met the enemy first, they were killed first. 
 When the women's turn came, the Turks and Kurds 
 abused all they could get hold of, and then told them 
 that if they would deny Christ and accept Mohammed 
 and become their wives, they should live; but if they 
 refused, every one of them, according to the Sultan's 
 order, should be killed. ^' ^ow," said they, " choose 
 between Islam and death." These noble Armenian 
 Christian women said: — " We are Christians, we can 
 never deny Christ. Jesus Christ is our Saviour. He 
 came down from Heaven and died on the cross for us. 
 For that dying and loving Christ we are Christians; 
 we are ready to die for Him who died for us." And 
 they added further, " We are no better than our hus- 
 bands were; you killed them, kill us too." Then the 
 horrible butchery began on those defenseless women. 
 Thousands of them were slaughtered, and thousands 
 ran to different churches, hoping that perhaps they 
 might find protection in some way in those holy walls, 
 
242 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 or hoping that God in his great mercy might shelter 
 them. But the ferocious Kurds and Turkish soldiers 
 pursued them, sword in hand, violated them, even in 
 the churches, and cut their throats there until the 
 floors were streaming with blood. Then they poured 
 kerosene on the buildings and burned them. 
 
 They went to one village and killed every man; 
 the women of course, knowing their fate was soon to 
 be worse than their husbands'. One of the leading 
 women, named Sliaheg, perceiving that the Turks and 
 Kurds were getting ready to seize and ravish them, 
 called the other women and said, '' Sisters, our hus- 
 bands are killed, and you know what is in store for 
 us and our children. Don't let us fall into the hands 
 of these savage beasts; we have to die anyway, and 
 can die easier, and without being defiled first, and per- 
 haps tortured. Let us go to the precipice and jump 
 off." So saying, she took her baby on her arm, ran 
 to the rock, and threw herself over; the others fol- 
 lowed her, and thus all were killed. The Turks cap- 
 tured many boys and girls, six, or eight, or ten years of 
 age, held them by an arm or foot, and hacked them to 
 pieces with their swords. Sometimes they stood the 
 boys in a row and shot them, to see how many could 
 be killed by a single bullet. They wrenched babies 
 from their mothers' arms, cut their throats while the 
 mothers shrieked and pleaded, and boiling them in 
 kettles, forced the mothers to eat the flesh. They cut 
 open women about to become mothers, tore out the 
 unborn babes, and marched triumphantly with the 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 243 
 
 ghastly trophies on their spears — something ahnost 
 surpassing the savagery of the Apache Indian. Even 
 their worst horrors they made worse yet by the way 
 they did them; they took a gloating delight in doubling 
 the crnelty or the shame by making it torture others 
 too. The husband was forced to look on while his 
 wife was violated, and she in turn while he was nm- 
 tilated, tortured, and murdered; the father while his 
 daughters, even little girls of ten or twelve, were de- 
 flowered and their throats cut, the son while his pa- 
 rents had every form of shame and torture inflicted 
 on them, and were killed before him, or saw him killed 
 first. They tortured their victims like Indians or 
 Inquisitors, in every fashion of lingering death and 
 torment that makes the heart sicken and the blood 
 run cold to read of. Crucifying head downward, 
 and pouring boiling w^ater or ice-cold water on them, 
 leaving them so till death came ; flaying alive ; cutting 
 off arms, feet, nose, ears, and other members, and 
 leaving them to die; thrusting red-hot wires into and 
 through their bodies. They pulled out the eyes of 
 several Christian pastors, said, " ^ow dance for 
 us," poured kerosene on them and burned them to 
 death. They put a Bible and a cross before others, and 
 ordered them to first spit and then trample on both, 
 and deny Christ ; on their refusal they were butchered. 
 The handsomest girls and young matrons were not 
 murdered, but worse; each one was kept as a spoil of 
 some Turk or Kurd, who carried her to his house, and 
 made a slave and concubine of her. Many hundreds 
 
244 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 of them are there to this day, enduring the awful fate 
 of having been dragged from happy and virtuous 
 homes, seen their husbands, or parents, or brothers, or 
 all of them horribly murdered, and passing their lives 
 each in doing menial labor and serAdng the lust of a 
 brutal master, and all the other men he lets have their 
 will of her, without hope, or comfort, or decency, and 
 a long life of shame and misery yet to look forward 
 to. This is another specimen of Mohammedan purity, 
 and it all happens because the Armenians are Chris- 
 tians. If my readers think I am exaggerating, I re- 
 fer them to the consular reports. All this was done 
 by the barbarians con amore, with relish and delight. 
 They boasted of it, they plumed themselves on it, they 
 praised the Sultan for ordering them to do it, and he 
 praised them for doing it, and decorated all the of- 
 ficers. 
 
 The condition of those who were murdered out- 
 right was much better than that of those who were im- 
 prisoned and tortured. The following was written 
 by an Armenian from one of the prisons: — 
 
 " Our condition in prison passes description. Only 
 he who sees can understand it. Most of the occupants 
 of every room are Christians, but many are Moslems. 
 Life would be a shade more tolerable if the subject 
 race were not compelled thus to associate with the dom- 
 inant race, whose temper, tastes, and habits are so 
 different. Into one small room twenty persons are 
 crowded. Except for a few Moslems, not a single per- 
 son has room enough on the bare floor to stretch out 
 and lie down. For fully sixteen hours in the night, 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 245 
 
 the doors of the rooms are all locked. In one of these 
 small rooms, sometimes twenty cigarettes are smoking 
 at once. Out of the small amount of food which 
 reaches us, instead of eating themselves, the Chris- 
 tians are obliged to feed the Moslems confined there. 
 Moslem oppression continues, even here ; it is a tyranny 
 within a tyranny. In every room there are a few 
 Aghas or principal Moslems, and every Christian must 
 contribute money to their lordships. Those who with- 
 hold such contributions are not allowed to sit down. 
 
 '' Among the inmates of the prison are twenty or 
 thirty rowdies and bullies, under whom the Chris- 
 tians must serve as menial slaves. There is no respect, 
 no pity. The horrible blasphemies cannot be de- 
 scribed. There is no book, no Bible, no work, no 
 sleep. Every man is covered with the swarming ver- 
 min with which the unwashed rooms of the prison 
 teem. To clean ourselves is impossible. Xow and 
 then the rumor sweeps through the prison that we are 
 all to be put to death, and all our hearts melt like 
 w^ater. 
 
 " The terrible darkness of the night, the curses 
 and stripes inflicted from time to time, cause us to live 
 in the valley of the shadow of death. It is a living 
 grave, a visible hell, a world without God. Out of this 
 throng of prisoners more than a hundred are in daily 
 suffering from the gnawing of hunger, and from na- 
 kedness, but there is no one to pity. Many praying 
 men are tempted to cease praying, many are tempted 
 to change over to the Moslem faith. In truth, all of 
 us are dumb; what to say w^e know not. We are 
 wearied of the long silence; our eyes are strained 
 with watching, our bones ache, our prayers are de- 
 spised by the revilers. Xight is not night, and day is 
 not day. Our grief is our food, our sleep is weeping, 
 for how long a time must we cry ? Lord, wilt 
 
246 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Thou hide Thyself forever ? How long will Thy 
 anger burn like fire ? And yet some of us are saying: 
 ' Though He slay me, yet will I. trust in Him.' 
 
 ^' When will the Christian statesmen and philan- 
 thropists of the world find a way to cleanse these Au- 
 gean stables all over Turkey ? Long centuries cry out 
 for redress. Within a month the following incidents 
 have occurred: A Christian confined in this prison 
 was ordered to receive 400 stripes. After 300 had 
 been inflicted he cried out that he could endure no 
 more or he must die. An ofiicer then presented to 
 him a paper wdth the names of fifty Christians in the 
 citv who were accused therein of sedition. In his 
 great agony he signed it, and this is to be used to in- 
 criminate others, wholly regardless of their guilt or 
 innocence. The other victim of unendurable stripes 
 Avas an old man. When he could endure no more of 
 this inhuman treatment, he also was asked to sign a 
 paper implicating others indiscriminately. 
 
 ^^ Can any one living in a free country for a mo- 
 ment imderstand what it is to live under such a gov- 
 ernment ? There is a great flourish just at present 
 over the reforms that are being instituted in certain 
 parts of this land. I^o resident of this country can 
 have confidence in the superficial operations. AVhat 
 will you do with a land where lying is the simplest of 
 mental exercises, and where no one was ever known 
 to blush over it if exposed ? " 
 
 I give here the testimony of a gentleman from 
 Sassoun who escaped the atrocities. He is an Ar- 
 menian from Sassoun, and my personal friend. I 
 quote this from a little pamphlet, entitled " Facts 
 About Armenia." 
 
M \8S xrUE A 
 
 khzi^H''i:m iti'itixu %\ v-sArui-:, 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IK ARMENIA. 247 
 
 The Massacre of 1894. 
 
 " The Armenians of Sassoun were fully aware of 
 the hostile intention of the government, but they could 
 not imagine it to be one ol utter extermination. 
 
 '' The Porte had prepared its plans, Sassoun was 
 doomed. The Kurds were to come in much greater 
 number, the government was to furnish them provision 
 and ammunition, and the regular army was to second 
 them in case of need. 
 
 '^ The various tribes received invitations to take 
 part in the great expedition, and the chiefs, with their 
 men, arrived one after the other. The total number 
 of the Kurds who took part in the campaign may 
 be estimated at 30,000. The Armenians believed in 
 the beginning that they had to do only with the Kurds. 
 They found out later that an Ottoman regular army, 
 with provisions, rifles, cannons, and kerosene oil, was 
 standing at the back of the Kurds. 
 
 '' The plan was to destroy first Shenig, Semal, 
 Guelliegoozan,Aliantz,etc.,and then to proceed toward 
 Dalvorig. The Kurds, notwithstanding their im- 
 mense number, proved to be unequal to the task. The 
 Armenians held their own, and the Kurds got worsted. 
 After a two weeks' fight between Kurd and Armenian, 
 the regular army entered into an active campaign. 
 Mountain pieces began to thunder. The Armenians, 
 having nearly exhausted their ammunition, took to 
 flight. Kurd and Turk pursued them, and massacred 
 men, women, and children. The houses were searched 
 and then set on fire. From certain villages groups 
 of men, tax receipts in their hands, went to the camp 
 and asked to be protected, but were slaughtered. 
 
 ^^ A great number of villages outside of the Dal- 
 vorig district, which had in no wise been concerned in 
 the conflicts of the previous years, were also attacked, 
 to the unspeakable horror of the populations. The 
 
248 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 troops climbed up even the Mount Antok, where a 
 multitude of fugitives had taken refuge, and mas- 
 sacred them. A number of women and girls were 
 taken to the church of Guelliegoozan, and after being 
 frightfully abused, were tortured to death. 
 
 " When the work of destruction was nearly accom- 
 plished in the other districts, some of the Kurdish ar- 
 mies were set on Dalvorig. The people defended 
 themselves against the overwhelming number of. the 
 barbarians, but after four or five days they saw other 
 tribes and regular Turkish troops marching on them 
 from every side, and they took to flight, but were over- 
 taken and massacred. The scene was most hor- 
 rible. The enemy took a special delight in 
 butchering the Dalvorig people. An immense 
 crowd of Turkish and Kurdish soldiery fell upon the 
 villages, busily searching the houses and rooting out 
 hidden treasures, and then setting fire to the village. 
 While the troops were so occupied, a number of the 
 fugitives fled ^vildly to get out of the district, and tried 
 to hide themselves in caves, between rocks, or among 
 bushes. Three days after the complete destruction 
 of Dalvorig villages, the Kurds and the regular sol- 
 diers divided among themselves the result of the plun- 
 der, and the Kurds returned to their own mountains.'' 
 
 As my use of English is defective, I take the lib- 
 erty here of quoting from a long letter by E. J. Dillon 
 to the Contemporary Review, January, 1896. 
 
 Dr. Dillon is an Englishman who was the special 
 
 correspondent of the London '^ Daily Telegraph," a 
 
 most accurate and conscientious reporter, who writes 
 
 as an eye-witness: 
 
 " If a detailed description were possible of the hor- 
 rors which our exclusive attention to our own mistaken 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 249 
 
 interests let loose upon Turkish Armenians, there is 
 not a man within the kingdom of Great Britain whose 
 heart-strings would not be touched and thrilled by the 
 gruesome stories of which it would be composed. 
 
 " During all those seventeen years, written law, 
 traditional custom, the fundamental maxims of human 
 and divine justice were suspended in favor of a Mo- 
 hammedan saturnalia. The Christians, by whose 
 toil and thrift the empire was held together, were de- 
 spoiled, beggared, chained, beaten, and banished or 
 butchered. First their movable wealth was seized, 
 then their landed property was confiscated, next the ab- 
 solute necessaries of life were wreste<l from them, and 
 finally honor, liberty, and life were taken with as lit- 
 tle ado as if these Christian men and women were 
 wasps or mosquitoes. Thousands of Armenians were 
 thrown into prison by governors like Tahsin Pasha and 
 Bahri Pasha, and tortured and terrorized till they de- 
 livered up the savings of a lifetime, and the support 
 of the helpless families, to ruffianly parasites. Whole 
 villages were attacked in broad daylight by the Im- 
 perial Kurdish cavalry without pretext or warn- 
 ing, the male inhabitants turned adrift or killed, and 
 their wives and daughters transformed into instru- 
 ments to glut the foul lusts of these bestial murderers. 
 In a few years the provinces were decimated, Alogh- 
 kerd, for instance, being almost entirely ' purged ' 
 of Armenians. Over 20,000 woe-stricken wretches, 
 once healthy and well-to-do, fled to Kussia or Persia 
 in rags and misery, deformed, diseased, or dying; on 
 the way they were seized over and over again by the 
 soldiers of the Sultan, who deprived them of the little 
 money they possessed, nay, of the clothes they were 
 wearing, outraged the married women in the pres- 
 ence of their sons and daughters, deflowered the tender 
 ^'irls before the eyes of their mothers and brothers, 
 
£50 Armenia and her people. 
 
 and then drove tliem over the frontier to starve and 
 die. Those who remained for a time behind were no 
 better oif. Kurdish brigands Hfted the last cows and 
 goats of the peasants, carried away their carpets and 
 their vahiables, raped their daughters and dishonored 
 their wives. Turkish tax-gatherers followed these, 
 gleaning what the brigands had left, and, lest any- 
 thing shoidd escape their avarice, bound the men, 
 flogged them till their bodies were a bloody, mangled 
 mass, cicatrized the wounds w^ith red-hot ramrods, 
 plucked out their beards hair by hair, tore the flesh 
 from their limbs with pincers, and often, even then, 
 dissatisfied with the financial results of their exertions, 
 hung the men whom they had thus beggared and mal- 
 treated from the rafters of the room, and kept them 
 there to witness with burning shame, impotent rage, 
 and incipient madness, the dishonoring of their wives 
 and the deflowering of their daughters, some of whom 
 died miserably during the hellish outrage. 
 
 " In accordance with the plan of extermination, 
 which has been carried cut with such signal success 
 during these long years of Turkish vigor and English 
 sluggishness, all those Armenians who possessed mo- 
 ney, or money's worth were for a time allowed to pur- 
 chase immunity from prison, and from all that prison 
 life in Asia Minor implies. But as soon as terror and 
 summary confiscation took the place of slow and elab- 
 orate extortion, the gloomy dungeons of Erzeroum, 
 Erzinghan, Marsovan, Ilassankaleh, and Van were 
 filled, till there was no place to sit down, and scarcely 
 suflftcient standing room. And this means more than 
 English people can realize, or any person believe who 
 has not actually witnessed it. It would have been a 
 torture for Turkish troopers and Kurdish brigands, 
 but it was worse than death to the educated school- 
 masters, missionaries, priests, and physicians Avho were 
 
ifiE TtilKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 251 
 
 immured in these noisome hotbeds of infection, and 
 forced to sleep niglit after night standing on their 
 feet, leaning against the foul, reeking corner of the 
 wall which all the prisoners were compelled to use as 
 The very worst class of Tartar and 
 Kurdish criminals were turned in here to make these 
 hell-chambers more unbearable to the Christians. 
 And the experiment w^as everywhere successful. Hu- 
 man hatred and diabolical spite, combined with the 
 most disgusting sights, and sounds, and stenches, with 
 their gnawing hunger and their putrid food, their 
 parching thirst and the slimy w^ater, fit only for sew- 
 ers, rendered their agony maddening. Yet these were 
 not criminals nor alleged criminals, but upright Chris- 
 tian men, who were never even accused of an infrac- 
 tion of the law. ^o man who has not seen these 
 prisons with his own eyes, and heard these prisoners 
 with his own ears, can be expected to conceive, much 
 less realize, the sufferings inflicted and endured. The 
 loathsome diseases, whose terrible ravages were freely 
 displayed; the still more loathsome vices, which were 
 continually and openly practiced; the horrible blas- 
 phemies, revolting obscenities, and ribald jests which 
 alternated with cries of pain, songs of vice, and pray- 
 ers to the unseen God, made these prisons, in some 
 respects, nearly as bad as the Black Hole of Calcutta, 
 and in others infinitely worse. In one corner of this 
 foul fever-nest a man mi^2:ht be heard moaning and 
 groaning with the pain of a shattered arm or leg; in 
 another, a youth is convulsed v/ith the death spasms 
 of cholera or poison; in the center, a knot of Turks, 
 whose dull eyes are fired with bestial lust, surround a 
 Christian boy, who pleads for mercy with heart-har- 
 rowing voice while the human fiends actually outrage 
 him to death. 
 
 " Into these prisons venerable old ministers of 
 
252 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 religion were dragged from tlieir churches, teachers 
 from their schools, missionaries from their meeting- 
 honses, merchants, physicians, and peasants from their 
 firesides. Those among them who refused to de- 
 nounce their friends, or consent to some atrocious 
 crime, were subjected to horrible agonies. Many a 
 one, for instance, was put into a sentry-box bristling 
 with sharp spikes, and forced to stand there motionless, 
 without food or drink, for twenty-four and even thir- 
 ty-six hours, was revived with stripes whenever he fell 
 fainting to the prickly floor, and was carried out un- 
 conscious at the end. ].t was thus that hundreds of 
 Armenian Christians, whose names and histories are 
 on record, suffered for refusing to sign addresses to 
 the Sultan accusing their neighbors and relatives of 
 high treason. It was thus that Azo was treated by 
 his judges, the Turkish officials, Talib Effendi, Cap- 
 tain Reshid, and Captain Hadji Fehim Agha, for de- 
 clining to swear away the lives of the best men of his 
 village. A whole night was spent in torturing him. 
 He was first bastinadoed in a room close to which his 
 female relatives and friends were shut up so that they 
 could hear his cries. Then he was stripped naked, 
 two poles extending from his armpits to his feet were 
 placed on each side of his body and tied tightly. His 
 arms were next stretched out horizontally and poles 
 arranged to support his hands. This living cross was 
 then bound to a pillar, and the flogging began. The 
 whips left livid traces behind. The wretched man 
 was unable to make the slightest movement to ease his 
 pain. His features alone, hideously distorted, re- 
 vealed the anguish he endured. The louder he cried, 
 the more heavily fell the whip. Over and over again 
 he entreated his tormentors to put him out of pain, 
 saying, ' If you want my death, kill me with a bullet, 
 but for God's sake don't torture me like this ! ' His 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 253 
 
 head alone being free, he at last, maddened by ex- 
 cruciating pain, endeavored to dash out his brains 
 against the pillar, hoping in this way to end his agony. 
 But this consummation was hindered by the police. 
 They questioned him again; but in spite of his con- 
 dition, Azo replied as before: ' I cannot defile my 
 soul with the blood of innocent people. I am a Chris- 
 tion.' Enraged at this obstinacy, Talib Effendi, the 
 Turkish official, ordered the application of other and 
 more effective tortures. Pincers were fetched to 
 pull out his teeth, but, Azo remaining firm, this 
 method was not long persisted in. Then Talib com- 
 manded his servants to pluck out the prisoner's mous- 
 tachios by the roots, one hair at a time. This order 
 the gendarmes executed, with roars of infernal laugh- 
 ter. But this treatment proving equally ineffectual, 
 Talib instructed the men to cauterize the unfortunate 
 victim's body. A spit was heated in the fire. Azo's 
 arms were freed from their supports, and two brawny 
 policemen approached, one on each side and seized 
 him. Meanwhile another gendarme held to the mid- 
 dle of the wretched man's hands the glowing spit. 
 While his flesh was thus burning, the victim shouted 
 out in agony, ' For the love of God kill me at once ! ' 
 
 ^' Then the executioners, removing the red-hot 
 spit from his hands, applied it to his breast, then to his 
 back, his face, his feet, and other parts. After this, 
 they forced open his mouth, and burned his tongue 
 with red-hot pincers. During these inhuman opera- 
 tions, Azo fainted several times, but on recovering con- 
 sciousness maintained the same inflexibility of pur- 
 pose. Meanwhile, in the adjoining apartment, a 
 heart-rending scene was being enacted. The wo- 
 men and the children, terrified by the groans and 
 cries of the tortured man, fainted. When they re- 
 vived, they endeavored to rush out to call for help, 
 
254 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 but tlie gendarmesj stationed at the door, barred tkeir 
 passage, and brutally pushed them back. ^* 
 
 ^' lights were passed in such hellish orgies and 
 days in inventing new tortures or refining upon the 
 oldj with an ingenuity which reveals unimagined 
 strata of malignity in the human heart. The results 
 throw the most sickening horrors of the Middle Ages 
 into the shade. Some of them cannot be described, 
 nor even hinted at. The shock to people's sensibili- 
 ties would be too terrible. And yet they were not 
 merely described to, but endured by men of education 
 and refinement, whose sensibilities were as delicate 
 as ours. 
 
 ^^ And when the prisons in which these and analo- 
 gous doings were carried on had no more room for 
 new-comers, some of the least obnoxious of its actual 
 inmates were released for a bribe, or, in case of pov- 
 erty, were expeditiously poisoned off. 
 
 ^' In the homes of these wretched people the fiend- 
 ish fanatics were equally active and equally success- 
 ful. Family life was poisoned at its very source. 
 Rape and dishonor, with nameless accompaniments, 
 menaced almost every girl and woman in the land. 
 They could not stir out of their houses in broad day- 
 light to visit the bazaars, or to Avork in the fields, 
 nor even lie down at night in th^ir own homes, with- 
 out fearing the fall of that Damocles' sword ever sus- 
 pended over their heads. Tender j^outh, childhood 
 itself) was no guarantee. Children were often mar- 
 ried at the as^e of eleven, even ten, in the vain hope of 
 lessening this danger. But the protection of a hus- 
 
 * The above description is taken literally from a report 
 of the British Vice-Consul of Erzeronm. Copies are in pos- 
 session of the diplomatic representatives of the powers at 
 Constantinople. The scene occurred in the Village of Semal 
 before the massacres, during the normal condition of things. 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 255 
 
 band proved unavailing; it merely meant one murder 
 more, and one ' Christian dog ' less. A bride would 
 be married in church yesterday, and her body would 
 be devoured by the beasts and birds of prey to-mor- 
 row, — a band of ruffians, often officials, having with- 
 in the intervening forty-eight hours seized her and 
 outraged her to death. Others would be abducted, 
 and, having for Aveeks been subjected to the loathsome 
 lusts of lawless Kurds, would end by abjuring their 
 God and embracing Islam; not from any vulgar mo- 
 tive of gain, but to escape the burning shame of re- 
 turning home as pariahs and lepers, to be shunned by 
 those near and dear to them forever. Little girls of 
 five and six were frequently forced to be present dur- 
 ing these horrible scenes of lust, and they, too, were 
 often sacrificed before the eyes of their mothers, who 
 would have gladly, madly accepted death, ay, and 
 damnation, to save their tender offspring from the 
 corroding poison. 
 
 '^ One of the abducted young women who, having 
 been outraged by the son of the Deputv-Governor of 
 Khnouss, Hussein Bey, returned, a pariah, and is now 
 alone in the world, lately appealed to her English 
 sisters for such aid as a heathen would give to a brute, 
 and she besought it in the name of our common God. 
 Lucine Mussegh — this is the name of that outraged 
 young woman wdiose Protestant education gave her, 
 as she thought, a special claim to act as the spokes- 
 woman of Armenian mothers and daughters — Lu- 
 cine Mussegh besought, last March, the women of 
 England to obtain for the women of Armenia the 
 ' privilege ' of living a pure and chaste life ! This 
 was the boon which she craved — but did not, could 
 not obtain. The interests of ^ higher politics,' the 
 civilizing missions of the Christian powers, are, it 
 seems, incompatible with it ! ^ For the love of the God 
 
256 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 whom we worship in common/ wrote this outraged, 
 but still hopeful, Armenian lady, ' help us. Christian 
 sisters ! Help us before it is too late, and take the 
 thanks of the mothers, the wives, the sisters, and the 
 daughters of my people, and with them the gratitude 
 of one for whom, in spite of her youth, death would 
 come as a happy release.' 
 
 '' I^either the Christian sisters nor the Christian 
 brethren in England have seen their way to comply 
 with this strange request. But it may perhaps in- 
 terest TAicine Mussegh to learn that the six great pow- 
 ers of Europe are quite unanimous, and are manfully 
 resolved, come what will, to shield His Majesty the 
 Sultan from harm, to support his rule, and tO guar- 
 antee his kingdom from disintegration.' These are 
 objects worthy of the attention of the great powers; 
 as for the privilege of leading pure and chaste lives — 
 they cannot be importuned about such private mat- 
 ters. 
 
 " In due time they began. Over 60,000 Armen- 
 ians have been butchered, and the massacres are not 
 quite ended yet. In Trebizond, Erzeroum, Erzin- 
 ghan, Hassankalek, and numberless other places the 
 Christians were crushed like grapes during the vin- 
 tage. The frantic mob, seething and surging in the 
 streets of the cities, swept down upon the defenseless 
 Armenians, plundered their shops, gutted their houses, 
 then joked and jested with the terrified victims, as 
 cats play with mice. As rapid, whirling motion pro- 
 duces apparent rest, so the wild frenzy of those fierce 
 fanatical crowds resulted in a condition of seeming 
 calmness, composure, and gentleness which, taken in 
 connection with the* unutterable brutality of their 
 acts, was of a nature to freeze men's blood with hor- 
 ror. In many cases they almost caressed their vie- 
 
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THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 257 
 
 tims, and actually encouraged them to hope, while pre- 
 paring the instruments of slaughter.'' 
 
 After the horrible scenes at Sassoun, and other 
 places, the Armenian protests shamed the European 
 powers, who signed the treaty of Berlin, to send a com- 
 mission and investigate the atrocities. It found the 
 stories quite true, laid the facts before the Sultan — 
 and that was the end of it. The Armenians asked, 
 " Since you admit the truth of these things, why do 
 you not punish the criminals, stop the outrages, and 
 compel the payment of indemnity to those who were 
 outraged and Avho lost their dear ones and their prop- 
 erty ? " The powers were deaf to all this. Then the 
 Armenians prepared an appeal (several months ago) 
 and carried it to the Sublime Porte, asking it to do 
 them justice. As soon as the Sultan heard of this, he 
 ordered his soldiers to fire on them if they presented 
 it. The appeal was presented, and before the eyes 
 of the European Ambassadors in Constantinople, the 
 brave soldiers of the kind-hearted Sultan butchered 
 about 3,000 Armenian Christians, several thousand 
 were imprisoned, and several hundred were murdered 
 in the Central Prison. Then the cold, wise, and con- 
 siderate European powers began to move very slowly, 
 not for the sake of the Armenians, but for their own, 
 their citizens in Constantinople and elsewhere. 
 
 They ordered the Sultan to reform Armenia, 
 brought their fleets to the Dardanelles near Constan- 
 tinople to overawe him, prepared a scheme of reform 
 for Armenia, and made huge threats to the Sultan 
 17 
 
258 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 if lie did not aocept it. But he knew that this pre- 
 tended concert of the powers for Armenian reform 
 was a mere trick and sham, as I have persistently as- 
 serted all along in the face of my hopeful European 
 and American friends; in fact, the Kussian govern- 
 ment at this very time was secretly urging him to stand 
 firm and refuse to accept the reforms. He did so, 
 broached a scheme of his own as a substitute, and the 
 powers accepted it as such; and then the whole thing 
 was dropped, the Sultan did nothing whatever about 
 it, as he had never intended to. The European coun- 
 tries were hoodwinked, and the Armenian massacres 
 and conflagrations, plundering and deflowering, went 
 on at a greater pace than ever. Then the powers 
 dropped the Armenian question, and took up that of 
 gunboats in the Bosphorus, to protect their citizens 
 against a rising in Constantinople; that they forced 
 the Sultan to permit, because their own interests were 
 concerned in it, — which shows that they could have 
 forced him to stop exterminating the Armenians if 
 they had cared. All joined in this except Germany; 
 the German Emperor is the Sultan's friend, and backs 
 him up. So now Germany, Russia, and the Sultan 
 are hand in hand, leagued to prevent any of the mis- 
 erable victims of his tyranny from escaping his clut- 
 ches, and the Sultan has the best possible encourage- 
 ment to go on killing the Armenians. The German 
 Emperor says, ^' Better that Armenians be killed 
 than have a war in Europe and lose the lives of some 
 of my soldiers." The Czar says, " Time must be 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 259 
 
 given to the Sultan to reform his country." Lord 
 Salisbury says, " The Sultan has promised, and we 
 must wait and see what he will do." And the Sultan, 
 cursing every Emperor and lord of them all as a set 
 of Christian hogs, orders the soldiers and the Kurds to 
 go on with the good work in Armenia. And when we 
 come to America, the Monroe doctrine obliges it to 
 quarrel over Venezuela, and not only refuse help 
 itself, but give Lord Salisbury a good excuse to give 
 none either. 
 
 Such is the situation; the massacres are going on 
 in Armenia and the Armenians in despair are crying, 
 " O Lord, how long, how long ! " 
 
 Mass meetings are good as far as they go; raising 
 money and sending it to relieve the Armenians is good 
 as far as it goes; the Ked Cross Society is good as far 
 as it goes; there are no objections to any of them; they 
 are all noble and Christian. But, reader, don't you 
 think all these good movements with good motives 
 will hurt the Armenian cause, as there is nothing to 
 aid that cause directly ? All these mass-meetings 
 merely irritate the Sultan into carrying on the mur- 
 ders more strenuouslv, since there is no force back 
 of them. Don't you think the Armenian question 
 being discussed in the United States Congress, and 
 resolutions made without any action, will hurt the 
 Armenians more than anything else ? If you can't 
 tread down the Sultan, don't stir him up. Miss Clara 
 Barton, that noble woman, is in Armenia to help the 
 Armenians. The Red Cross Society is there and is 
 
260 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 feeding tlie Armenians. I thank lier, every Armen- 
 ian thanks her. But do you think that that will re- 
 lieve the situation ? Spring has come, and what 
 now ? Will the Armenians have any crops ? Did 
 they, or could they sow any seed ? Is there any far- 
 mer left alive ? Has any farmer, if he is alive, any 
 oxen or horses ? If he has, will he dare go to his field, 
 sow, reap, and thresh ? Reader, consider all these 
 things, and reconsider them, and I am sure you will 
 come to the same conclusion I did many years ago, 
 that Turkey does not need a Red Cross Society, but 
 a Red Cross crusade, not like the medieval crusades, 
 but a Protestant American crusade in the nineteenth 
 century. Let me illustrate this Armenian question 
 by the following parable: — 
 
 Suppose a lamb is torn by a wolf, and the wolf lies 
 in wait to finish it. You go to the lamb with a bundle 
 of grass in your hand, pat it and say, " Here, poor 
 lamb, I pity you, I give you grass; take it and eat it." 
 Then you leave the larnb and go away. Do you think 
 you have helped the lamb ? As soon as you have 
 gone, the wolf will come and tear the lamb to pieces. 
 If you are going to help the lamb, you must kill the 
 wolf, else no matter how much grass you give the 
 wounded lamb, it will do it no good. You will do no 
 good by sending Red Cross societies to Armenia to feed 
 the Armenians if you have not the power or the will 
 to keep the wild beasts off. You will feed them, and 
 then the wolves will kill them. 
 
 i^ow I will pass in review some of the leading cities 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 261 
 
 in Armenia where there have been great persecutions. 
 Before beginning, however, I must state that it is 
 impossible to give an accurate census of the popula- 
 tion in the Armenian cities, or the number who have 
 been massacred; for the Turkish government never 
 takes a correct census, and never gives or will give 
 the true nmnber of those it has murdered. But I 
 think I can make a fair approximation of both. I 
 will begin with the city of Harpoot. * 
 
 HARPOOT AND ITS VICINITY. 
 This is one of the most important Armenian dis- 
 tricts, because the Armenians outnumber the Mo- 
 hammedans there; in the city the Turks are the more 
 numerous, but there are many Armenian towns and 
 villages which make up. The district has about 150,- 
 000 people, most of them Armenians, and about 40,- 
 000 were killed in the recent massacre. Harpoot is 
 built on three hills, and has a commanding view. 
 Here is located a great American missionary institu- 
 tion, the Euphrates College; it has three departments, 
 the college, the Theological Seminary, and the Girls' 
 Seminary. There were twelve buildings, eight of 
 which were burned in the outrages, a loss of $100,- 
 000. 
 
 Almost all the outlying villages were burned, 
 and the movables carried off. Women were made 
 prey, boys and girls were kidnapped; the horrors can 
 never be described. T give here a few words from a 
 private letter, written by a Mohammedan Turk to 
 his brother in this country. I have the letter in my 
 
 * Extracts from letters are left unsigned for fear of en- 
 dangering the writers' lives. 
 
262 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 possession, written in the Turkish language. He 
 
 says: — 
 
 "My dear brother: 
 
 All the Christian villages which belong to Har- 
 poot district, we plundered and destroyed, and killed 
 the inhabitants. We killed them both with our 
 swords and with our rifles. The bullets of our rifles 
 poured upon them like rain; none of them are left, 
 neither any dwelling was left, we burnt all their 
 houses. We thank God that not a single Mohamme- 
 dan was killed. Everywhere throughout Armenia 
 the Christians were punished in the same manner." 
 
 Another testimony from another Mohammedan, 
 an ofiicer; he says nearly 40,000 were killed in Har- 
 poot province, February 26, 1896: — 
 
 ■ " A petition in behalf of the Armenians was given 
 to the powers in the hope of improving their condi- 
 tion. An imperial firman was issued for carrying out 
 the reforms suggested by the powers. On this ac- 
 count the Turkish population was much excited, and 
 thought that an Armenian principality was to be es- 
 tablished, and they began to show great hostility to 
 the poor Armenians, who had been obedient to them 
 and with whom they had lived in peace for more 
 than 600 years. To the anger of the people were 
 added the permission and help of the government; 
 and so, before the reforms were undertaken, the whole 
 Turkish population was aroused, with the evil intent 
 of obliterating the Armenian name; and so the Turks 
 of the province, joining Avith the neighboring Kurd- 
 ish tribes by the thousand, armed with weapons which 
 are allowed only to the army, and with the help and 
 under the guidance of Turkish oflicials, in an open 
 manner, in the daytime, attacked the Armenian 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 263 
 
 houses, shops, stores, monasteries, churches, schools, 
 and committed the fearful atrocities set forth in the 
 accompanying table. They killed bishops, priests, 
 teachers, and common people with every kind of tor- 
 ture, and they showed special spite toward ecclesias- 
 tics by treating their bodies with extra indignity, and 
 in many cases they did not allow their bodies to be 
 buried. Some they burned, and some they gave as 
 food to dogs and wild beasts. 
 
 ^' They plundered churches and monasteries, and 
 they took all the property of the common people, their 
 flocks and herds, their ornaments and their money, 
 their house furnishings and their food, and even the 
 clothing of the men and women in their flight. Then 
 after plundering them, they burned many houses, 
 churches, monasteries, schools, and markets, some- 
 times using petroleum, which they had brought with 
 them to hasten the burning ; large stone churches which 
 would not burn they ruined in other ways. 
 
 " Priests, laymen, women, and even small chil- 
 dren were made Moslems by force. They put white 
 turbans on the men and circumcised them in a cruel 
 manner. They cut the hair of the women in bangs, 
 like that of Moslem women, and made them go 
 through the Mohammedan prayers. Married women 
 and girls were defiled, against the sacred law, and 
 some were married by force, and are still detained in 
 Turkish houses. Especially in Palu, Severek, Ma- 
 latia, Arabkir, and Choonkoosh, many women and 
 girls were taken to the soldiers' barracks and dis- 
 honored. Many, to escape, threw themselves into the 
 Euphrates, or committed suicide in other ways. 
 
 " It is clear that the majority of those killed in 
 
 Harpoot, Severek, ETusenik, Malatia, and Arabkir 
 
 were killed by the soldiers, and also that the schools 
 
 and churches of the missionaries and Gregorians in the 
 
264 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 upper quarter of Ilarpoot City, together witli tke 
 houses, were set on fire by cannon balls. 
 
 ^' It is impossible to state the amount of the pecu- 
 niary loss. The single city of Egin has given 1,200 
 (some say 1,500) Turkish pounds as a ransom. 
 
 ^" These events have occurred for the reasons I 
 have mentioned. I wish to show by this statement, 
 which I have written from love to humanity, that the 
 Armenians gave no occasion for these attacks." 
 
 The Turk, whose document is thus translated, 
 figures that the total deaths in the province of Har- 
 poot during the scenes, have been 39,334; the wound- 
 ed 8,000; houses burned, 28,562; and that the num- 
 ber of the destitutes is 94,870. 
 
 ^^ In a letter just received (Jan. 18, 1896) from the 
 Rev. PL ]N^. Barnum, D.D., of Ilarpoot, Eastern Tur- 
 key, where the property of the American Board was 
 burned, he says that reports have been secured from 
 176 villages in the vicinity of Ilarpoot. These vil- 
 lages contained 15,400 houses belonging to Christians. 
 Of this number 7,054 have been burned, and 15,845 
 persons are reported killed. Dr. Barnum adds : ^ The 
 reality, I fear, will prove to be much greater.' " 
 
 A letter from an Armenian named Kallajian, 
 written from Husenik, a town about three miles from 
 Harpoot, addressed to his brother in this country, says : 
 
 " Sunday, T^ovember 11, the government came 
 to our town, Husenik, and asked the Armenians to 
 give up their arms, and they surrendered all they had; 
 and in the evening asked them to take the church bell 
 down. They also obeyed, and by night the Turkish 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 265 
 
 soldiers surrounded the town until the morning, and 
 in the morning early they sounded the bugle. When 
 they soimded the bugle, about 25,000 Kurds made an 
 attack on the town, and pkmdered all the houses, kill- 
 ing 700 men, women, and children, besides the 
 wounded. When the attack was made, we left our 
 house, with two of our neighbors' families and many 
 others from our town, about thirty in all. One little 
 boy, my nephew, I carried on my shoulders, and the 
 other was carried by its mother, and we ran up the 
 hill toward Harpoot. The bullets were showering 
 upon us by hundreds, and father fell. He was shot 
 once in the head and once in the belly, and stabbed 
 with a sword through his chin. When we reached 
 the top of the hill, about twenty Kurds came down 
 from Harpoot, and took all our clothes and money, 
 and left us naked; and a little after, a band of Turks 
 came down and made so much trouble for us that I 
 am unable to describe it. They took us to the city, 
 and we finally succeeded in getting to the house of 
 Sadukh Effendi, formerly of our town, but now living 
 in the city. We went to his house, and this kind man 
 kept us there for two days in his house, and on Tuesday 
 evening he took us to our own town, and as we came 
 near to our house I found that father was dead under 
 a tree. We went to the house ; we saw that our house 
 was open and stripped of everything, and father's 
 trunk was broken open, and his papers were soaked in 
 kerosene and set on fire, and twenty-five houses were 
 destroyed on our street. We are hungry and in des- 
 titute condition; help us if you can. Our little 
 nephew savs : ^ O Jesus, keep us afar from such trou- 
 ble.' " 
 
 There are other letters also from Harpoot, but 
 this is enou2fh to show the nature of the scenes there. 
 
2Q^ ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 PALOO AND WHAT HAPPENED THERE. 
 
 Paloo is one of the oldest cities in Armenia. It 
 had 15,000 population, 5,000 Armenians and 10,000 
 Mohammedans, and there were over forty Armenian 
 villages in the district around. About 5,000 Chris- 
 tians were killed during the recent massacre. 
 
 Personal Letters From Paloo, 
 December 15, 1895. 
 
 " Paloo is in a miserable condition. All the 
 houses and shops have been robbed. About 2,000 per- 
 sons have perished, and few have survived this great 
 ruin; but we thank God all our family is in safety. 
 Just to-day I received a letter from our home; they 
 write: ^ We are alive, but hungry.' They have no 
 bread to eat, and no clothes to wear; our only hope is 
 God. If the country is soon reformed we can get our 
 living, but if not we shall all perish. Turks, Kurds, 
 and soldiers united, plundered, robbed, and burned the 
 houses of Paloo and the neighboring villages. You 
 can guess very well who has given the order." 
 
 A personal letter received by the Armenian Relief 
 Association, in this city, under date of Paloo, Ar- 
 menia, November 24, presents an awful picture of 
 the horrors to which the people there are subjected. 
 The letter is in part as follows : — 
 
 " On ^N^ovember 3, the Turks of the town armed 
 themselves, attacked the stores, plundered their con- 
 tents, and killed those who attempted to defend them- 
 selves. A few days later the Turks left the town, 
 joined a band of 10,000 Kurds, and began a general 
 assault upon the surrounding villages, pillaging and 
 burning the houses, and killing all the men. They 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 267 
 
 poured kerosene oil on all the stored grain and set it 
 on fire, and mixed the flour with filth, so that it could 
 not be used. The beautiful women were delivered to 
 the Kurds, who committed the most indescribable out- 
 rages. Many were carried off to slavery, and forced 
 to accept Mohammedanism. 
 
 " In Habab Village, where the people defended 
 themselves for six days, the government soldiers were 
 called to the aid of the Kurds, and the united forces 
 overpow^ered the village and burned all except fifteen 
 of their three hundred houses. 
 
 " All of the forty-one Armenian villages around 
 Paloo are in ashes, the fields laid waste, and the in- 
 habitants massacred. ISTothing is left but death and 
 desolation. 
 
 " On NTovember 11, 10,000 armed Kurds fell upon 
 the city of Paloo. They plundered the houses, even 
 pulling down the walls with hooks to discover any- 
 thing valuable that might be hidden. All the large 
 houses were burned. Ten of the wealthy Armenians, 
 who have always cared for the poor, and sheltered 
 the distressed, are left without a pair of shoes or a 
 blanket, 1,732 men were butchered in cold blood, 
 and of the 10,000 population, two hundred men only 
 are left, saved on condition that they serve the Turks 
 as slaves. 
 
 " More than 5,000 women and children are left 
 without any means of living. They are begging from 
 door to door for even a meagre pittance of bran, which 
 is all that is left, and every day death claims more 
 and more of the victims by starvation. All of the 
 more beautiful women have been taken by the Kurds. 
 The Armenian youths who have been forced to accept 
 Mohammedanism are also forced to take Turkish wives 
 to prove their sincerity. 
 
268 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 ^' All of my relations, save two, have been killed 
 in my presence. Our priests have all been butchered, 
 except one, who was forced to accept Islamism. Our 
 churches have been turned into mosques, where the 
 remaining women and old men are compelled to go 
 and be taught Islam by the Mohammedan priest.'' 
 
 But here is another letter, from an Armenian 
 mother to her son in this country, which brings us still 
 closer to the actual horrors, for this woman was herself 
 a victim — turned at a blow from a comfortably ma- 
 tron to a naked beggar, in winter, among the ruins of 
 her village, her own friends killed, herself foully 
 abused. Read this, and then talk, if you dare, about 
 " exaggerated accounts " ! 
 
 '' December 12, 1895. 
 "My Dear Son: — 
 " We received your letter dated November 14th, 
 which we read with great pleasure. You asked for 
 information about us, as to how we are, etc. Except 
 your father, we are all still alive, with our relatives, 
 and long to see you very much. It is very hard to 
 describe with the pen all the misfortunes that we 
 have undergone. They cannot be told ; but since you 
 are very eager to know, I w^ill try to write it down 
 for you very briefly. My dear son, on Tuesday, 
 November 28th, they took by force the oxen that are 
 used for ploughing the fields. Until the evening of 
 that day they gathered all the oxen for ploughing from 
 Paloo and the neighboring Armenian villages, and 
 took them for themselves, and gave us notice that they 
 should attack the village. Wednesday morning all 
 the people of the surrounding Turkish villages gath- 
 ered round about our village, and our village was be- 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 269 
 
 sieged until about noontime. From ten to fifteen 
 persons were killed up to that time from our side, and 
 the village was surrounded by more than twenty-two 
 thousand Turks and Kurds, who bear arms. It was 
 impossible for us to protect our village. We applied 
 to the government, there was no government to hear 
 us; despair reigned in the hearts of all. They fought 
 until evening, and before they had reached us, we, 
 all the villagers, left everything, even not taking 
 bread for one meal with us, went to the monastery 
 and left the village to the Turks. We passed the 
 night in the monastery, hungry and thirsty ; the num- 
 ber of the killed reached to thirty by morning. 
 Then we learned that it was not safe, even in the 
 monastery, although they had plundered it two or 
 three times. Thursday, by noontime, the monastery 
 was full of villagers. At noon there was a blow on 
 the door of the monaster v. Ravenous Turks, Zazes, 
 
 t/ 7 7 
 
 and others were besieging the building. Until evening 
 they beat at the iron door to break it; fifteen persons 
 were at it, but it was impossible for them to open it. 
 Within, the shrieks and the cries of the people reached 
 up to heaven. Men, in order to save their lives, dressed 
 themselves in women's clothes, and covered their 
 heads. Your brother wrapped his moustaches 
 so thickly that he should not be known, as the Turks 
 were after him by name. About 3 p. m., when the 
 Turks saw that it was not possible for them to open the 
 gate of the monastery, they broke in one of the stones 
 in the wall, and the plunderers entered. ... I 
 cannot describe here the sufferings of the people. 
 Within one hour they robbed and violated a popula- 
 tion of 1,500 people, five times each woman, mar- 
 ried or maiden, and then left the monastery. The 
 villagers, every one to save her or his life, left every- 
 
270 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 thingj property, cattle, merchandise, and provisions, 
 and fled, the man leaving his wife, the wife her child, 
 the son his mother, the brother his sister, and they dis- 
 persed in the adjoining mountains, plains, valleys, 
 and hills, with only their under-garments on, as the 
 Tnrks and Kurds had stripped them of everything 
 else. Friday morning the number of the killed had 
 reached about fifty. Your father was shot on the 
 plain of Sacrat, but the wound was not dangerous. 
 For three days the people gathered in Sacrat, hungry 
 and thirsty; from Sacrat they were given over to 
 the Zazes, to take them to the city. ... I can 
 not write down here all the things we endured at the 
 hands of the Zazes. . Finally, after we had suffered 
 unmentionable cruelties, being twice plundered in 
 the city and violated, three brides and maidens were 
 carried away as slaves by the Kurds, more than one 
 hundred persons were martyred, among whom were 
 two priests, and the rest were forced to accept Mo- 
 hammedanism, and after that the massacre ceased. 
 For twenty days we remained in the city, naked, hun- 
 gry, and thirsty, also hopeless. The city was rescued 
 from the massacre after having suffered the loss of six 
 hundred houses, together with all the property of the 
 shops and stores, and the total sum of the martyred 
 being 2,000. Our village was given over to be burned 
 for twenty days successively. Out of two hundred 
 houses, there are hardly thirty left sound; the rest 
 are all razed to the ground. . . . The rest of 
 this story will follow by next mail. I wanted to tell 
 you a little about our hard situation. Saved with only 
 our undergarments, hungry and thirsty, our whole 
 family came back from the city, among the ruins. I, 
 your mother, had to go begging wholly naked and 
 barefoot to the familiar Kurd neighbors. 1 had only 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 271 
 
 one shirt, which I made into a bag to put the things 
 in which I begged from the Kurds. For fifty days I 
 have provided thus for the family; after this I com- 
 mit it to your care; you know best what to do. We 
 have not got even a head covering; nothing to carry 
 the water home in from the fountain. It is the month 
 of December, and you know well it is the first month 
 of the winter; we have two and a half months yet be- 
 fore coming to the spring. We are all of us very, very, 
 hungry. Those Turks who were so friendly before 
 have turned now not to know us, they don't even give 
 a penny. We have no hope from anywhere else; if 
 you do not come to our help, we shall perish ! perish ! 
 perish ! We, with all the villagers shall die. Be- 
 hold the description of our misery. Read this to all 
 the villagers that are there with you, and notify them 
 that all of you must be the helpers and deliverers of our 
 people, especially to us who are all helpless and on the 
 verge of starvation. Send us help. I remain 
 
 " Your affectionate mother." 
 
 MALATIA AND ITS HARDSHIPS. 
 
 Malatia is located about midway between Marash 
 and Harpoot, a little distance from the Euphrates 
 river. More fruit is raised in and about there than 
 in any other section of Armenia. The assortment is 
 large, but the apples and pears are especially fine, per- 
 haps better than those of any part of the world. 
 It has about 20,000 population, two-thirds being 
 Mohammedans, and one-third Armenians. The 
 private letters which have been received from there 
 do not state, and cannot state how many Armenians 
 
272 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 have been killed during the period of the present perse- 
 cutions, and it is not likely there ever will be any cor- 
 rect estimate of them. The region has suffered im- 
 mensely, and letters from there reveal a most distress- 
 ing condition of affairs. The people were plundered 
 and violated in every conceivable way until there was 
 nothing more for the time being for the fiends to wreak 
 their cruelty upon. 
 
 Letters from Malatia. 
 
 Malatia, Dec. 22, 1895. 
 My Very Dear Son : — 
 
 We greet you with the fondest greeting, and it 
 is the desire of our hearts that the good Lord should 
 enable us to see each other again in this mortal flesh. 
 In regard to ourselves, as to how we were, and what 
 we are doing. We are all alive yet with our whole 
 family, no loss of persons from among us. Don't 
 mourn for us. Others are mourning for their loved 
 ones. Though in truth the grief and mourning of 
 others belong to us also because we are all Armenians, 
 one flesh and blood, and we all belong to the same 
 nation. 
 
 I did not go to bring up the bride of our neigh- 
 bor's with the rest, so I was at home when the mas- 
 sacre began. You remember that there was a well 
 in that quarter. The Turks killed the bridegroom, 
 his brother, the priest, together with sixty-five other 
 men, and threw them into that well. In another 
 house they bumed_ seventy-five men, and in still an- 
 other forty-five men. Finally, I am unable to de^ 
 scribe with my pen all that passed in those days and 
 hours. 
 
■■ Moiisa Beg vfas specialty reworded for Ids outrageous aB«J brutal tTeaXiv-ent 
 of this girl. Il«kJltel her father by thriistlag re<!-liot wires into Ms Ijodj, 
 
 :..tnimim"ii t,' D .!li ti/ "i ■ ^trf'«Wisi«;fl4sn Turks, jteid 
 
 j!^ 
 
 I! t: ifi'^i ( .• ■'! viii Qt tiU' Ufiti ^ rifiVj'.-itisu^t 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 273 
 
 May the Lord preserve your dear lives, and give 
 you peace and happiness. Your father. 
 
 Another Letter. 
 
 Malatia, Dec. 22, 1895. 
 My Dear Friend : — 
 
 I received your very kind letter about a week ago, 
 for which I thank you very much, and I read it with 
 great pleasure. But we do not get the boys' letters 
 regularly. It is nearly two months since the disas- 
 ter occurred, and in that time I have received but one 
 letter. The other day an Armenian handed me a let- 
 ter that was torn into nearly a hundred pieces. I 
 put all the pieces together and read it. It was also from 
 the boys, and I read and was very glad. I^Tow I will 
 try to give you a little information about us. The 
 first Monday I did not go to the market, for from Sat- 
 urday I got somehow suspicious that there was some- 
 thing impending over the city, and I did not let father 
 go either. My brother was to accompany those who 
 were going to bring up a bride for my brother's part- 
 ner in business. While my brother was at the wed- 
 ding house, they sent him on an errand to go and get 
 a few policemen to accompany them as protection in 
 bringing the bride. Just at the moment when my 
 brother was on his way to the station-house, he sees 
 there was confusion in the market; then he drops the 
 matter of bringing a policeman, but goes to the mar- 
 ket and closes the shop, and then turns towards home 
 in a hurry. While on his way, some men fired at 
 him several times, but fortunately he was not hurt. 
 He comes as far as to one of our neighbors, and there 
 drops down exhausted. They came and brought me 
 the news that he was there. Then I plucked up all 
 the courage I could, and went and brought, him home. 
 An hour or so after, the Turks came and besieged that 
 18 
 
274 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 same quarter and killed about thirty persons. On 
 Tuesday, very early in tlie morning, we left every- 
 thing, house, property, and goods, and just to save our 
 lives we fled to the new church, and I don't know 
 what became of the rest. We remained there in the 
 church until Friday; after that we came out of the 
 church, being a little assured of safety, and have been 
 living on the provision that the government allowed 
 us, but that also ceased a few days since. When we 
 came back home again we did not find a single thing; 
 they had swept off everything. We brought a mat- 
 ting from, some place, and six of us sleep in one bed. 
 Some sleep on hay. May you never have to endure 
 such hardships. This incident seems worse than the 
 earthquake or the cholera, or the fire. May the good 
 Lord preserve us from things worse than these. Our 
 life is not worth the living. We don't know the exact 
 number of the killed. Malatia is altogether a ruin. 
 It is a worse ruin than the city of Anni, and even worse 
 than Sassoun. It is beyond conception, one cannot 
 keep account of it. May the Lord write it down in 
 his own account book, so that he should take the ac- 
 count in the day of judgment. 
 
 Please excuse all my shortcomings, because I am 
 out of myself. Our love to all the friends over there. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 P. S. Please tell the boys to know the value of 
 money, and not waste neither their time nor their mo- 
 ney in vain. Por we have no one to look for but to 
 God in heaven, and after Him to them on earth. For 
 the value of a son is known in the time of adversity, 
 when he helps his elders or parents. Let them not yet 
 send any money, for there are no brokers left where 
 we can change it. 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 275 
 THE CITY OF SIVAS AND THE ATROCITIES. 
 
 Sivas is the seat of the vilayet or province of Sivas. 
 The Governor-General of that province resides there. 
 The population is about 30,000; one-third are Chris- 
 tian Armenians, and there are many Armenian Chris- 
 tian towns and villages round about, so that, if the 
 Armenians are not more numerous than the Moham- 
 medans, they equal them in number. Sivas is a mis- 
 sionary station, and during the atrocities, the Protes- 
 tant Armenian pastor also was killed. His name was 
 Garabet-Kilitjiam, one of the most gifted ministers of 
 the gospel, my personal friend and successor. After 
 I resigned my pastorate at Talas, Cesarea, he succeeded 
 me. He was offered the choice of accepting Moham- 
 medanism, but refused it, and then he was martyred. 
 
 In the city and province of Sivas during the recent 
 atrocides about 10,000 Armenians were killed, and 
 many villages and towns were plundered and de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 The following is a press dispatch: — 
 
 London, Nov. 16, 1895.— The representative of the United 
 Press at Constantinople reports, under the date of November 
 loth, that at six o'elocli, on the evening of November 14tli, 
 M. A. Jewett, United States consul at Sivas, sent a telegram 
 to United States Minister Terrell informing him that in the 
 disturbances which had taken place at Sivas, eight hundred 
 Armenians and ten Turks had been killed, and that, ac- 
 cording to official reports, a large body of Kurds were then 
 approaching the town. Mr. Jewett gave no details of the 
 disorders, but the discrepancy in the figures shows that the 
 Turkish allegations that the Armenians were the aggressors 
 are absolutely untrue, and that the Armenians were deliber- 
 ately massacred. 
 
276 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 From a private letter from Sivas, Nov. 21, 1895. 
 
 '' The air was full of wild rumors — but we could 
 get at nothing that seemed to have any substantial 
 truthful basis. Dr. Jewett — our consul — was on 
 the alert. He interviewed the Governor-General, — 
 and asked for protection for us, for the U. S. A. vice- 
 consul, for our schools, and for the American Consu- 
 late. These were cheerfully promised, and the next 
 day, Tuesday, ISTovember 12th, at midday, like a cy- 
 clone, Sivas was smitten, as I wrote you last week. 
 Mr. P. and I had steadfastly refused to believe that 
 such violence could take place in our city, and we were 
 totally unprepared for the shock. Our walls had 
 been taken down, — that is, our front wall had been, — 
 a distance of 125 feet. Our girls' school-building 
 had been cut off seven and a half feet on the south- 
 west corner, and both our schools and our dwellings 
 were in an entirely unprotected state. The day of 
 the terrible disaster, the city water was cut off from 
 our street, and for several days the heat was unusual 
 for this time of the year. The dead were buried on 
 Thursday, under the direction of the government, 
 in the Armenian graveyard, a priest of the Gregorian 
 faith being present to offer a prayer. 
 
 " Our good native pastor was in the market to at- 
 tend to the interests of his people, when, at a given 
 signal, a tribe of mountaineers, known as Karsluks 
 suddenly fell upon the Armenians with clubs, and 
 were soon followed by Circassians and local Mussul- 
 men, with knives and pistols; quickly and lastly the 
 police force and regular soldiers joined in with their 
 Martini rifles. It was a combined onslaught of four 
 other races against the Armenians. It has been de- 
 clared that the Armenians were in armed revolt 
 against the government, and this was doue to put down 
 the revolution. When the attack was made against 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCTTIES IN ARMENIA. 277 
 
 them, we fail to find that there was any armed re- 
 sistance, so far as we can learn. If the Armenians 
 were premeditating an armed attack upon the Mus- 
 snlmen, we never could find it out, but that proves 
 nothing here or there, as missionaries are well known 
 not to sympathize with revolutionists. 
 
 " Badveli Garabed died a martyr; his life being 
 offered him three times if he would deny Christ. He 
 bore noble testimony before many witnesses, then 
 fell in their presence, sealing his faith and testimony 
 with his blood. 
 
 " Yours affectionately," 
 
 Furtlier Information about Sivas by the Missionaries who wrote to 
 tlieir friends Nov. 12, 1895. 
 
 " The cyclone which struck on the 12th reached 
 Marsovan on the 15th. Don't be deceived by any of 
 the silly government statements which attribute all 
 these massacres to the Armenians. It was a deliber- 
 ate plan on the part of the government to punish the 
 Armenians. The Sultan was irritated because he 
 was forced to give them reforms, so he has had 7,000 
 Armenians killed to show his power since he signed 
 the scheme of reform. 
 
 '^ The killing was permitted to go on here all 
 last week; forty-six were killed Saturday, I^ovember 
 16; sixteen on Sunday, and many more on the follow- 
 ing day. The total number killed is about 1,200 Ar- 
 menians and ten Turks. 
 
 " It is a fact that the Kaimakam of Gurun tele- 
 graphed to the Vali at Sivas, saying in effect that there 
 is not an Armenian left at Gurun. The Armenians 
 at Sivas made no resistance, but at Gurun they tried 
 to defend themselves from the butchery, and suffered 
 the worse for it. 
 
 " In order to have an excuse for attacking the Ar- 
 
278 ' ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 menians at Sivas, the government smashed the win- 
 dows of Turkish shops and charged it to the Armen- 
 ians. Food is scarce, and everything was carried off 
 from the Armenian shops. There will be terrible 
 suffering all over this country.'' 
 
 Another letter from Sivas, according to the Con- 
 stantinople correspondent, gives many details which 
 all go to show that the whole movement against the 
 Armenians is directly traceable to the head of the 
 Turkish government, who proclaimed that his great 
 desire was to keep always in view, " The safeguard 
 of the rights of the people, and the maintenance of 
 public confidence." 
 
 '^ What cruel mockery; Trebizond, Erzeroum, 
 Bitlis, Marash, Harpoot and how many more towns 
 rise up and point the finger of everlasting scorn and 
 indignation to fix on Abdul Hamid Khan the stigma 
 of everlasting infamy ! The deliberate murder of 
 thousands of innocent and industrious men, the ex- 
 posure of ten times that number of women and chil- 
 dren and aged persons to absolute degradation and 
 destitution, will justify the name of Kanukiar — the 
 Bloodletter — which has been applied to the head 
 authority of the Empire." 
 
 The Riot in Sivas. 
 
 " Last week, Monday, November 11, was one of 
 the loveliest days Sivas ever had. Although there 
 were many rumors of trouble afloat, we could get at 
 nothing which seemed to have any greater founda- 
 tion than the fear that something might happen. 
 
 " I went unattended to the boys' school. On my 
 way to school that afternoon, I met a group of ex- 
 cited soldiers. They said nothing to me, but their 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 279 
 
 strangely excited manner impressed me as being out 
 of the usual order. When I began my class work, 
 the boys, instead of answering my questions, broke 
 forth with inquiries. They wanted to know if the 
 soldiers were going to shoot them, and if they were 
 going to be killed. That was the rumor afloat. I 
 hushed them up as best I could, and told them it was 
 not right to speak of such things. I succeeded in 
 quieting the children, but went home full of anx- 
 iety. 
 
 '• The next day, Tuesday, a large gang of Turkish 
 workmen gathered in our street to continue the public 
 work of building up some walls which had been torn 
 down at the Vali's orders, for the purpose of widen- 
 ing the street. Armenian carpenters were employed 
 on our building, iiothing out of the ordinary oc- 
 curred until the workmen's ' bread time/ about 11 
 o'clock, was finished. 
 
 " Then all the Osmanli (Turkish) gang sudden- 
 ly raised a hue and cry; each one grabbed a pick or 
 club, anything he could lay his hands on, and a wild 
 rush was made for the market-place. The air was 
 filled with yells of the furious men, who rushed along 
 madly. 
 
 " The Protestant pastor remained at home on the 
 day before, but on Tuesday was in a shop when the 
 signal for the raid was given. A perfect cyclone of 
 marauders rushed in and clubbed the unsuspecting 
 men in the stores to death before they could offer any 
 resistance. After the outbreak there was not a sin- 
 gle Armenian place of business left in the market. 
 
 " ]^o list of the dead was made out, and none 
 could be. The victims were all buried in an immense 
 trench in the Armenian burying-ground two days 
 afterwards. There were between seven and eight 
 hundred bodies thus buried." 
 
280 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 MARSOVAN AND THE ATROCITIES THERE. 
 
 Marsovan has 25,000 population, 10,000 being Ar- 
 menians, and the remainder Mohammedans. Mar- 
 sovan is one of the greatest stations of the American 
 missionaries. Anatoha College is there ; a theological 
 seminary for young men; and a seminary for girls. 
 The writer was the pastor of the Evangelical Ar- 
 menian church there till he was banished, for the 
 reasons stated in the sketch of him. After this the 
 Turks burned the girls' school; they tried to burn 
 the boys' college building also, but did not succeed. 
 Finally they several times massacred the Armenian 
 Christians, and forced many to accept Mohammedan- 
 ism. 
 
 I have not been able to get exact information about 
 the number of the martyred Christians in Marsovan, 
 but it is believed that in that missionary station about 
 1,000 were massacred altogether. The richest men 
 among the congregation were murdered, and so 
 thoroughly plundered that their children are left 
 wholly destitute; and the lives of the missionaries are 
 in danger. 
 
 CESAREA (KAISERIEH). 
 
 The writer is well acquainted with this city, as he 
 was the pastor at Talas, only three miles away, for 
 years. It has about 50,000 population, one-third 
 being Christians; a few hundred Greeks only, but 
 more than 15,000 Armenians. The richest and 
 ablest Armenians live in that city, or in Constantino- 
 ple, and came from there; its people are the leaders of 
 
WA'IEf: VEhhLUn 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 281 
 
 the Armenian nation, both in business and intellect. 
 For the story of its foundation, see " The Haigazian 
 Dynasty/' under King Aram. It is a typical Ar- 
 menian city ; and has several great Armenian churches, 
 with flourishing schools. There is a beautiful evangel- 
 ical church also, and it is a great missionary station, 
 with several American missionaries, and several mis- 
 sionary schools, both for boys and for girls. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Avedis Yeretzian, one of the great- 
 est of scholars, teachers, and preachers, and my per- 
 sonal friend, was martyred in that city during the 
 recent atrocities. He was shot dead in his own house 
 by a Mohammedan mob, then his wife was shot, then 
 his son, and the remainder of his children were cap- 
 tured by the mob. About 3,000 Armenians were 
 killed and wounded there, besides the loss of property. 
 The Mohammedan population of the city is very 
 savage; side by side in the same city, the Christians 
 are rich, refined, intelligent, and the Mohammedans 
 poor, lazy, sensual, and cruel. I give here two let- 
 ters from Cesarea. 
 
 A Private Letter from a Girl. 
 
 Cesarea, Turkey, Dec. 31, 1895. 
 My Dear Brother: — 
 
 Before the massacre, everybody was in fear; sev- 
 eral families would gather in one house to protect 
 themselves, and all the Armenian stores were closed 
 for twenty days; but as the government guaranteed 
 that there would be no danger, and told everybody to 
 attend to their business, and open their shops, they 
 did so. It was the 16th of I^ovember, on Saturday, 
 
282 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 that all opened their shops again, and the transaction 
 of business commenced in full force. At 2 p. m., at 
 the doors of the market, bugles sounded, and several 
 hundred bashi-bazook [irregular soldiers] were at the 
 doors of the bazaar, every one of them having in his 
 hands stilettos, swords, yataghans, guns, revolvers, 
 hammers, axes, hatchets, sickles, poniards, daggers, 
 and heavy sticks with twenty or thirty nails fastened 
 to them. Then they blew horns, the signal to start 
 the massacre. Cries were heard, " First kill, cut, and 
 butcher the Giavours; the property already belongs 
 to us; cut, cut, kill, don't care for plundering at pres- 
 ent." Then they rushed into the market and slaugh- 
 tered all they met. Oh ! you can imagine what 
 became of those who fell into the hands of those brutes. 
 Alas ! alas ! how unspeakable ! They butchered 
 them like cattle ; cut their heads off like onions. Some 
 tried to run, but could not, others tried to escape, but 
 were brought back and killed. The bazaar was full 
 of dead bodies. People hid themselves among the 
 goods, and in the cellars, and were saved ; ten or fifteen 
 days after, people were found there in a starving con- 
 dition, not having dared to come out. They killed in 
 Avsharaghus factory thirty-eiglit men; in Kayanjilar 
 everybody was slain. After the massacre was over, 
 the governor, Ferick Pasha, sent soldiers around, and 
 they discovered many people hiding, and took them 
 back to the government house (seray), examined their 
 pockets for revolvers and knives, and not finding any, 
 the governor sent them to their homes. 
 
 They plundered the bazaar of all its goods, and 
 then, oh, my Lord ! they rushed upon the houses and 
 upon the women's Turkish baths. . . . I can- 
 not describe this; when I think of it, my whole body 
 trembles. The people in the baths were killed and 
 wounded, and they carried away the young girls; every 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 283 
 
 one was killed that tliey came in contact with. The 
 houses were plundered of all their contents, and build- 
 ings were torn down, and houses full of people were 
 burned. Oh, how terrible ! What I say you can- 
 not imagine to be so; you may think it is a dream, 
 because your eyes have not seen nor your ears heard 
 the screams, wailings, weeping, shrieks, and groan- 
 ing; that even our forefathers have not heard, but of 
 which our ears are full day and night. My brother 
 was in the bazaar, but fortunately he had occupied 
 a private room, where he was safe. 
 
 Some of the kidnapped girls were brought back 
 by the government, but most of them were wounded, 
 and half dead from fright. Thank God, we are safe, 
 but we are not better than those girls. We are in 
 Mr. Wingate's house, where many lives were saved. 
 He carried beds and clothing to the people, who were 
 stripped of all. A few Mussulmans also protected 
 in their homes some Armenians; for example, James 
 Imurogiov, Go j aid Ogloo. 
 
 Yeretzian Avedis Effendi's house is ruined, him- 
 self, his son, and wife are killed, and the rest, five of 
 them, are carried away. Our block and their block 
 is ruined. They butchered Avjinury, Yuzukji, Dirn- 
 hitza and carried away her three daughters, but later 
 on brought two of them back. I mentioned them, as 
 you know. They also butchered Yuzikji Apraham 
 and his wife Gaga Haji, Gemerlkli Ohanness, Mus- 
 taamelji Gobra, Terrzi Artin, Erzurumli, servant boy. 
 Avedis Ago and his daughter were carried away. 
 Gussi Hamimon's mother is low. Oh, pity the intol- 
 erable many, many, I cannot write by my pen, or de- 
 scribe with my tongue the terrible sufferings. O 
 Lord, have mercy upon us ! To my knowledge there 
 were five hundred killed, six hundred wounded ; many 
 are dying from their wounds and fright. Eight hun- 
 
284 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 dred houses are plundered, and the tenants flocked 
 to the churches. I cannot write one hundredth part 
 of what happened. 
 
 We are lost, lost, ruined, no work, no business, 
 every one of us looking for safety. Happy, happy be 
 you that are in America and have nothing to fear. 
 They say to me, you ought to be with your brother 
 in America now. If the way was opened, everybody 
 would like to go. 
 
 If you are not in good circumstances there, you 
 must feel satisfied and give the thanks to God always. 
 We also have to thank God that we are still living. 
 It is one month now that we have not been able to 
 go out in the streets. O Lord, help us, Oh ! what 
 shall we come to ? Oh, my dear brother, if you can 
 help us in any way please do so; make lectures, get 
 some help; everybody is dying of hunger. I cannot 
 write any longer; we leave all to your conscience. I 
 do not write this letter only to you, but to all. Do 
 whatever you can for us, we are in a terrible condi- 
 tion. I thank you, my brother, for the money that 
 you sent to me, thank you very much. 
 
 We send our best regards to every one of you. I 
 wrote this letter with the tears in my eyes. We beg 
 of you to write us good letters. Yaham, the little 
 boy, is in good health. We are all well including 
 
 Your sister, 
 
 Letter from Cesarea. 
 
 Cesarea, I^oy. 20, 1895. — While the Armenians 
 were engaged in their business, as usual, the Turkish 
 mob fell upon them, killing 600 defenseless men and 
 wounding 1,000 more. The mob divided into four 
 parts. The first part plundered the stores, the second 
 looted the houses, the third secured the maidens and 
 young brides, while the fourth, fiends incarnate, at- 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IK ARMENIA. 285 
 
 tacked the public baths. These human devils killed 
 six naked women in the presence of the others, snatch- 
 ing their babies from their arms and bayoneting the 
 mothers. The shrieks and agonizing cries of these 
 poor creatures made no impression upon the minds of 
 the savage Turks, who laughed at their death agonies. 
 They then took some of the young girls, who were 
 with their mothers at the bath, and dragged them 
 naked, by their feet, through the streets, followed by 
 a jeering and hooting mob. 
 
 The Turks who attacked the houses then killed 
 them and fired the houses. The cries of the women, 
 mingled with the hoarse shouts of the Turks, can never 
 be forgotten. The men who survived the sword were 
 discovered, taken to the magistrate and searched, but 
 no arms were found in their possession, not even a 
 knife. When released, and allowed to return to their 
 homes, they were confronted by a most ghastly pic- 
 ture. Some found their wives dead, others horribly 
 mutilated; daughters were bleeding. My hand 
 almost fails me to write the awful particulars. It took 
 three or four days to remove the bodies of the dead 
 with forty carts. Add to this the want, the desola- 
 tion. Oh, my Grod, for how long, how long ! Where 
 are those Christian powers who saved African slaves ? 
 Where are those Christians who advocated brotherly 
 love and mercy, sending their missionaries to teach 
 us ? Are they deaf to our piercing cry ? 
 
 AINTAB AND ITS HORRORS. 
 
 The writer is well acquainted with Aintab, and 
 some of his best friends live there, if they have not 
 been killed. It has about 40,000 population, one- 
 third of it being Armenian. There are great schol- 
 ars among them. Central Turkey College is there. 
 
286 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 It is an American college, but most of the professors 
 are native Armenians, graduates of Yale College. 
 There is also a woman's American College and a hos- 
 pital. The Evangelical Armenians are the strongest; 
 they have three large churches. They are con- 
 sidered to be the richest Evangelical Armenians in 
 Turkey. But hundreds of them were killed, wounded 
 and plundered; in all about 4,000 of the Armenian 
 population were killed. 
 
 A Letter from Aintab, Nommber 23, 1895. 
 
 Aintab has had its baptism of blood and fire, and 
 we sit in grief among ruins. We had been hoping that 
 the many things which seemed to combine for our 
 security would save our city from the fury of the 
 storm which is desolating so many places about us. 
 Our Christian community is large (about one-fourth 
 of the whole population), and the Christians, as a 
 class, are exceptionally intelligent and influential; 
 the leading Moslems of the city are intelligent and 
 able men, and have shown themselves to a degree 
 tolerant and even friendly to Christians; the gov- 
 ernor has seemed disposed, beyond most Turkish of- 
 ficials, to respect the rights of Christians. There is 
 a considerable number of foreign residents sure to 
 be Avitnesses of any violence done to Christians. The 
 college and hospital have for years commanded a 
 powerful influence in the city; the hospital especially 
 has the good-will of all classes; the college, its stu- 
 dents and teachers were no doubt regarded by many 
 with much suspicion on account of the latent antag- 
 onisms inevitably existing between progressive and 
 conservative ideas, but personal relations were, so 
 far as I know, always friendly. Another thing in our 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 287 
 
 favor has been the fact that the Christians of Aintab 
 have given very little countenance to the ultra-revo- 
 lutionists, who have no doubt provoked trouble in 
 some places. Relying upon all these things, we had 
 for nearly three weeks been hearing reports of fighting 
 and massacre at Zeitoon, Marash, and Oorf a, and other 
 places, with comparatively little anxiety for ourselves. 
 It is true we were frequently hearing of fearful 
 threats and warnings of what the Moslems were pre- 
 paring to do in Aintab, but we had got hardened to 
 that sort of thing, and regarded it as largely the in- 
 vention of cowardly roughs to terrify those whom they 
 did not dare attack. The most alarming thing in the 
 situation was that the government was disarming the 
 Christians, and at the same time giving out rifles and 
 ammimition to Moslems. This, however, was at- 
 tributed to an exaggerated fear of a Christian rising, 
 of which they profess to have information. 
 
 Meantime the Moslems liable to military service 
 were called out and equipped and hurried off toward 
 Zeitoon, where it was reported that the Christians 
 were in rebellion. This, no doubt, was the occasion 
 of intense irritation, and both the soldiers and their 
 friends were saying, '^ If we must fight Christians we 
 will begin with those close at hand." Under these 
 circumstances the native Christians became very 
 anxious, and made such preparations for defense as 
 circumstances permitted, at the same time keeping as 
 quiet as possible, and avoiding all controversy and al- 
 tercations with the Moslems. The government in- 
 creased the police force in the city, and held a con- 
 siderable force of troops at the barracks near the 
 town, and the governor and principal men seemed to 
 be making much effort to quiet the people. Several 
 considerable tumults had occurred and been promptly 
 suppressed without bloodshed; so day after day 
 
288 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 dragged on, each hour increasing the hope that we 
 should tide over the crisis. 
 
 Saturday morning, November 16, more than 
 three weeks after the first riot in Marash, at about 
 half past seven, just as we were rising from break- 
 fast, our people came in with white faces saying, " The 
 day of judgment has come in the city." We hastened 
 to the door, and sure enough the mob was at work; 
 all the west and south part of the city seemed to be 
 in an uproar; crowds of people rushing in every 
 direction, roofs covered with excited men, women, and 
 children ; the strange mingling of cries of fear, anger, 
 and defiance, with occasional gun and pistol shots, 
 made an exhibition of the most fearful tumult and 
 confusion. 
 
 Already troops were hurrying forward, and soon 
 a company of some sixty soldiers were stationed in 
 front of the Girls' Seminary, with pickets out to 
 cover the approaches to the hospital and college. Dr. 
 Shepherd and Mr. Sanders mounted their horses and 
 hastened to the hospital and seminary, where they 
 remained until the rioting ceased. The college is 
 about half a mile west of the seminary and hospital, 
 and commands a full view of these buildings, and of 
 the whole west end of the city, where most of the 
 rioting occurred. 
 
 What we, who were looking on, saw from this 
 point was the narrow streets densely crowded with in- 
 tensely excited people, now and then a rush made upon 
 some house or gate, the rally of defenders on the 
 roofs, amonss; whom women were often foremost, using 
 stones, clubs, and sometimes guns and pistols as best 
 they could. Sometimes the attack is beaten off, and 
 the assailants withdraw to organize a new assault, 
 sometimes a gate or wall is broken down, and then 
 the noise of conflict subsides and the work of mas- 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 289 
 
 sacre and plunder begins. Later on, long lines of 
 people moving off to their homes laden with plunder, 
 and later still the flames and smoke rising from the 
 burning houses. 
 
 What we heard was the indescribable roar of the 
 mob, pierced by the sharp reports of pistols and guns, 
 with now and then shrieks of agony and fear, and 
 shouts of defiance or command, and over all, and most 
 horrible of all, the loud shrill '' Zullghat," (wedding 
 cry) very like the cry of our northern loons prolonged 
 and sharpened, raised by Turkish women crowded on 
 their roofs and cheering on their men to attack. The 
 massacre and pillage began in the markets, and in 
 those parts of the city where Christians' houses, sur- 
 rounded by Moslem neighbors, offered easy points of 
 attack; these places having been looted, the mob 
 moved on towards what are known as the Christian 
 quarters of the town. There the resistance became 
 more obstinate ; in two of these quarters the old street 
 gates were still in use, by shutting which, the district 
 enclosed becomes a small fortified community capable 
 of making a strong resistance to an organized mob. 
 The assailants were at last beaten off and arrested. 
 
 Under such general conditions the storm of mob 
 violence raged on without much abatement till the 
 middle of the afternoon, when the tumult gradually 
 subsided, and night at last brought quiet, except in 
 the vicinity of burning houses, where the uproar went 
 on till near midnight. By morning, arrangements 
 seemed to have been made which gave us hope that 
 order would be maintained; the guard for our mis- 
 sion premises had been increased, and the soldiers 
 posted at intervals aroimd the Christian quarters of 
 the city. Very early in the morning of the 17th, 
 crowds, evidently eager to share the plunder, were 
 seen hurrying towards the city from every direction. 
 19 " 
 
290 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 The soldiers met and turned tliem back, and even 
 beat some of them and chased them off. They soon 
 returned, however, increased in numbers, and being 
 joined by friends from the city, became very turbu- 
 lent. About noon we saw through our glass an of- 
 ficer, apparently a captain, ride forward into a mob, 
 and address them at some length; we could not hear 
 what he said, but immediately, without any show of 
 opposition from any one, the whole crowd came pell- 
 mell with the soldiers into the city. This was at 
 the southwest corner of the town, and immediately 
 under our eves. At the same time much the same 
 thing was occurring at the northwest corner; then for 
 an hour chaos was let loose again, and the horrors of 
 the previous day were repeated, only that this time 
 the Christians were prepared, and, being in a strong 
 position, were generally able to beat off their assail- 
 ants. At one point of the line of defense were 
 a few Moslem houses, and we were delighted to learn 
 that the men heartily and bravely joined in the de- 
 fense with their neighbors; the gallantry of this act 
 was somewhat marred, howcA^er, by the demand which 
 they made the next day for a large sum of money for 
 their service; these men actually demanded and re- 
 ceived about $5 apiece for this neighborly help. 
 
 When it became apparent that the mob could not 
 force their way into the places held by the besieged, 
 the soldiers, perhaps having received new orders, re- 
 sumed a show of activity, fired a few shots into the 
 air, and drove the mob out of the city and dispersed 
 them; this is the last serious fighting that has oc- 
 curred up to the present time, though local tumults 
 have broken out frequently, several houses have been 
 pillaged and burned, and two Christians' at least were 
 shot while being conducted through the streets by 
 soldiers. Strict military rule is now established, and 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 291 
 
 special care is taken to safeguard the lives of property 
 of foreigners. We are kept under very close re- 
 striction, and not allowed to visit the city except for 
 special objects, and then under a strong guard. The 
 amount of damage we can only estimate; as nearly as 
 we can judge, the figures will be about 200 killed, 
 400 wounded, nearly all the Christian shops and 250 
 houses pillaged, and a considerable number burned. 
 Some 1,000 men who in the first panic took refuge in 
 khans and mosques are still held as prisoners, for 
 purposes which we can only surmise. 
 
 P. S. Dec. 17. Quiet has for the most part 
 been maintained under strict military rule. 'No Chris- 
 tian can yet venture out without armed escort, and 
 there are not wanting signs that there is waiting and 
 even expectation of another signal from above. The 
 government, however, seems to be trying to restore 
 order and confidence. We are glad to say that we 
 have heard of no cases of special violence or abuse 
 offered to women. 
 
 The above-named prisoners have been gradually 
 released, till now there are only some six of the princi- 
 pal Christians still in confinement. The number of 
 killed just now must be set down at over 400; the 
 butchery in the markets where the first attacks began 
 far exceeded our belief. A great number of bodies 
 were thrown together into some distilleries, and these 
 buildings set on fire and burned to the ground, thus 
 removing for a time much of the terrible evidence of 
 the extent of the massacre. The attack being made in 
 the morning and beginning in the markets, it happened 
 that the killed are about wholly from the " bread-win- 
 ners '' among the Christians. As a result, there are 
 now in Aintab more than 4,000 people dependent on 
 charity for daily bread, and most of those to whom 
 they would naturally look for aid are utterly impov- 
 
292 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 erished; the outlook for tlie winter is simply appall- 
 ing. We appeal for aid speedily in the name of hu- 
 manity. 
 
 THE CITY OF BIRIJIK AND THE ATROCITIES. 
 
 The city of Birijik is on the shores of the Euphra- 
 tes; it has a beautiful appearance from the other side 
 of the river. The Mohammedan population there are 
 very wild and ignorant. 
 
 The Massacre at Birijik {Prom nee of Aleppo). 
 
 Birijik had about 300 Christian houses, or say 
 about 1,000 souls, in the midst of the Mussulman pop- 
 ulation of about 9,000 souls. After the massacre at 
 Oorfa on the 27th of October, 1895, the authorities 
 at Birijik told the Armenians that the Muslims were 
 afraid of them, and that therefore they (the Armen- 
 ians) must surrender to the government any arms 
 that they possessed. This was done, the most rigid 
 search being instituted to assure the authorities that 
 nothing whatever in the way of arms remained in the 
 hands of the Armenians. This disarmament caused 
 no little anxiety to the Armenians, since the Muslim 
 population was very generally armed, and was con- 
 stantly adding to its arms. In fact, during the months 
 of November and December the Christians have kept 
 within their houses because the danger of appearing 
 upon the streets was very great. 
 
 Troops were called out by the government to pro- 
 tect the people. Since the soldiers had come to pro- 
 tect the Christians, the Christians were required to 
 furnish animals for them to carry their goods. Then 
 they were required to furnish them beds and carpets 
 to make them more comfortable. Finally they were 
 required to furnish the soldiers with food, and they 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 293 
 
 were reduced to a state bordering on destitution by 
 these increasing demands. 
 
 The end came on the first of January, 1896, when 
 the news of the massacre of several thousands of Chris- 
 tians at Oorfa by the soldiers appointed to guard them 
 incited the troops at Birijik to imitate this crime. The 
 assault on the Christian houses commenced at about 
 nine o'clock in the morning and continued until night- 
 fall. The soldiers were aided by the Muslims of the 
 city in the terrible work. The object at first seemed 
 to be mainly plunder, but after the plunder had been 
 secured the soldiers seemed to make a systematic 
 search for men, to kill those who were unwilling to 
 accept Mohammedanism. The cruelty used to force 
 men to become Muslims was terrible. In one case 
 the soldiers found some twenty people, men, women, 
 and children, who had taken refuge in a sort of cave. 
 They dragged them out and killed all the men and 
 boys, because they would not become Muslims. After 
 cutting down one old man who had thus refused, they 
 put live coals upon his body, and as he was writhing 
 in torture, they held a Bible before him, and asked 
 him mockingly to read them some of the promises in 
 which he had trusted. Others were thrown into the 
 river while still alive, after having been cruelly 
 wounded. The women and children of this party 
 were loaded up like goods upon the backs of porters 
 and carried off to the houses of Muslims. Christian 
 girls were eagerly sought after, and much quarreling 
 occurred over the question of their division among 
 their captors. Every Christian house except two, 
 claimed to be owned by Turks, was plundered. Wme- 
 ty-six men are known to have been killed, or about 
 half of the adult Christian men. The others have 
 become Mussulmans to save their lives, so that there 
 is not a single Christian left in Birijik to-day. The 
 
294 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Armenian Churcli has been made into a mosque, and 
 the Protestant Church into a Medresse Seminary. 
 —[Dr. Dillon. 
 
 OORFA AND ITS ATROCITIES. 
 
 Qorfa, the old Ur of the Chaldees, where Abra- 
 ham, the old patriarch of the Bible, was born, was 
 called Edessa in the time of Christ. I have told the 
 story of King Abgar and his conversion in the his- 
 torical part of this book. It had about 50,000 pop- 
 ulation, about 20,000 of whom were Armenians be- 
 fore the massacres. Out of that number 8,000 were 
 slaughtered, according to Mr. Fitzmaurice, the British 
 vice-consul who returned from Oorfa to Constantino- 
 ple on March 21. The Evangelical Armenian pastor, 
 the Rev. Hagop Abuhayatian, was also martyred. I 
 knew him personally. He was educated in Germany, 
 a man of great ability; a great scholar, and a great and 
 forcible preacher. 
 
 A Letter from Oorfa, Jan. 28, 1896. 
 Dear Friend: — 
 
 Your only remaining brother sends you a letter, 
 but no letters can begin to explain the sad state of this 
 city. The massacre of Dec. 28 and 29 has left 
 all homes except Catholics and Syrians entirel.y 
 empty of any comforts. Many families have not 
 one bed even; all cooking utensils, clothing, bed- 
 ding, carpets, etc., were taken. Most have a little 
 zakhere left, though some have not that. We are 
 feeding about 175 of the most needy, and more will 
 come to us every week. The loss by death is between 
 4,000 and 5,000. Our pastor, the Rev. Hagop Ab- 
 ouhayatian, Dr. Kivorc, and brother Harotoun, Sar- 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 295 
 
 kis Yarjebed Cliiibiikiaii and brother and son, Gar abed 
 Houmian, Habbourjou Avedis and brother Sarkis, old 
 sexton Garabed and other sexton Bogos, Ma jar Kiv- 
 orc and brother Bogos and Berber Monofa and two 
 sons, Eskejiyan Marderos, Zarman Roomian's three 
 sons, are some of the dead. In all, our Protestant 
 dead are 115. Some of our people perished in the 
 Gregorian Church, where 1,500 or 2,000 went for 
 refuge Saturday night, and on Sunday were mur- 
 dered or burned, very few escaping. It was the most 
 awful of all the terrible events of those two days. 
 
 Thank God, two hundred and forty were saved 
 by coming to me; sixty of them were men. I could 
 not keep the men in my house or yard, because it was 
 forbidden by the guards, but I hid them elsewhere, 
 and fed them for three or four days. The govern- 
 ment carefully protected me, and killed as many of 
 my friends as possible. We have our house and all 
 the schoolrooms full of the wounded and the most 
 forlorn. 
 
 Our Oorfa redeefs leave to-morrow; we have 
 new soldiers now for guard of the city, and Christians 
 especially. Oorfa redeefs have been poor guards, 
 and but for them the awful work would not have 
 been accomplished. The pastor of Severek, the Rev. 
 Marderos, was killed. The Rev. Yartan remains 
 alive in Adayaman. Both in Severek and Adayaman 
 the number of the killed was very great. In Birijik 
 about two hundred were killed, and all remaining have 
 become Moslems; they have been circumcised. 
 
 In Aintab about three hundred were killed, 847 
 shops plundered and 417 houses. 
 
 During our first disturbance, six to seven hundred 
 shops here were plundered, and about 175 houses. 
 Then the Christians used arms to defend themselves. 
 Since then all arms have been taken by the govern- 
 
296 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 ment from the Christians, and the leaders were forced 
 to sign a paper stating the city as "in peace and har- 
 mony, thanks to the rulers,'' etc. ; twenty-five signed it, 
 and now almost all of these have been killed. Our 
 pastor signed for Protestants. 
 
 Only two of the Gregorian priests remain, and 
 they are wounded. The bishop is alive, but feeble, 
 and does not work publicly now. Their state is very 
 sad. We desire your prayers, and the aid of all who 
 can give us help by money at this time. 
 
 Sincerely your friend, 
 
 P. S. Your brother asks you to send a letter to 
 him by me. 
 
 DIARBEKIR AND ITS STORY. 
 
 Diarbekir (see the historical part for its founda- 
 tion) has about 40,000 population. Nearly half of 
 them are Christians, but not all of them are Arme- 
 nians. There are Chaldeans also. The Armenian 
 population numbered about 12,000, of which 5,000 
 were killed during the recent atrocities. 
 
 A Letter from Diarhekir, Nov. 20, 1895. 
 
 My Dear Sir; — 
 
 After salutation, I offer my thanks to God that 
 after great dangers and tribulation we have reached 
 the present time. God's will be done. How can I 
 describe the horrors in our city to you ? Can any pen 
 or any language tell them ? No, but I shall try to 
 write at least a very short description of them. But 
 who knows if this letter will reach you, because of the 
 letters we write, very few reach you, and very few of 
 your letters reach us, since the government has control 
 of the mail, and it is the government that persecutes 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 297 
 
 US. Our age is a peculiar age. God look at our 
 misery and save us. 
 
 How bappy were those who were martyred on 
 JSTov. 1, and have gone to their reward. The atrocities 
 which happened here on ISTovember 1, 2, 3, cannot be 
 matched in the history of the civilized world. I do 
 not think they can be in that of heathen lands, where 
 the people are barbarous. 
 
 When I write these lines to you, I hardly know 
 what I am writing; the darkness of Egypt covers all 
 around me. The former millionaires in the city have 
 nothing and are begging bread. Nov. 1 was a 
 black day for the Armenians. Many were separated 
 from their loved ones, even parents from their chil- 
 dren. Many merchants and rich people were so thor- 
 oughly plundered and stripped that they are literally 
 left naked and hungry, and numbers have been put 
 to unspeakable tortures by the Turks and Kurds. 
 ISTov. 1 was Friday; it was about noon when the 
 Mohammedans came out from their mosques. The 
 native Turks, the Kurds who were brought from 
 outside, and the soldiers all united, swords, pistols, 
 guns, axes, and clubs in their hands, fell upon the Ar- 
 menians in the market place or business place, cut 
 them to pieces, and plundered what they had. If they 
 had been all killed by bullets it would have been a 
 sudden death, and easier. But they cut them to pieces 
 bit by bit with their axes, and made holes in the bodies 
 with their swords. 
 
 When they were killing the Armenians, they were 
 repeating the following words, " Bring testimony to 
 prophet Mohammed. Our Sultan ordered us to kill 
 these heathen dogs, the Armenians.'' The governor 
 of the city, and all other officials, with the commander 
 of the soldiers, during the time of the atrocities were 
 sitting near the great mosque, and while listening to 
 
298 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 the cries and screams of tlie martyred Armenians, 
 they were laughing and joking with great pleasure, 
 and ordering the soldiers to carry the most valuable 
 things to their houses. 
 
 After they had killed everybody, and plundered 
 everything in the business place, they turned to the 
 residences where Armenians lived, and began to bum 
 and kill. Some of the soldiers went to the tops of 
 the minarets or high towers, and began to shoot the 
 Armenians from there. What a pitiful scene was the 
 condition of the Armenian ladies, who were running 
 from house to house, from street to street, and were 
 shot dead, and their children left orphans. During 
 the three days' massacre 4,000 Armenians were killed, 
 and the burning of the houses and stores continued 
 twenty-four hours. From the gate of the mosque 
 to the place where they make saddles, and from the 
 twin caravansary to the new caravansary, from 
 Sheik Uatad to Melik Ahmed, all the buildings, 1,400 
 stores, were burnt and turned to ashes. There are 
 other stores also which were not burnt, but everything 
 was taken from them. The stores where goldsmiths 
 worked every article is taken from. 
 
 When the Armenians go among the ruins to see 
 if they can find any article, they are forbidden; and 
 if some one manages to find anything, the Moham- 
 medans take it from him, cursing him, and calling 
 him a heathen dog at the same time. 
 
 When we come to the residences near your house, 
 from the house of Darakji to the covered place of 
 Sheytan aglou, all are destroyed; from Alo-Pasha 
 bath to the Jemil Pasha Palace, all destroyed. But 
 the church of the Patrees is not destroyed. St. Sar- 
 kis's church was plundered and afterwards burned. 
 Before the church Avas burnt, they killed the priests, 
 and unspeakable violations took place in the church. 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 299 
 
 In that quarter half of the population were killed, 
 and the other half, who survive, are naked, bare- 
 footed, hungry, and are begging bread. 
 
 E^ow the government pretends to give bread to 
 the hungry, but nothing is given, and those who have 
 a little give to the others who have nothing; but after 
 a few days nothing will be left to eat. Thank the 
 Lord, the Kurds went out of the city. But it is twenty 
 days now since the massacre took place, and nobody 
 dares to go out to the streets. 
 
 We have no stores, no money, nothing to eat. 
 Though my personal house was not robbed, but I have 
 ten orphans whose fathers and mothers were killed; 
 I am taking care of them. We have a little; we shall 
 eat that, and see what the Lord will provide. 
 
 From the Rev. Dr. Tomy's house to the church 
 of the Evangelical people all the houses were burned. 
 Hovhanness's loss is about $1,000. Those who hid 
 themselves in Konsol Khan and in the church of the 
 Patrees escaped death. But every one who escaped 
 was left hungry and thirsty from twelve to fifteen 
 days in their places of confinement, because they were 
 afraid of going out. 
 
 All the suburbaii towns and villages were totally 
 destroyed. In Sevorag both the Armenian church 
 and the Evangelical Armenian church were destroyed, 
 and only from fifty to one hundred persons were left 
 alive. The monastery of Argen was destroyed, and 
 the teachers and all the inmates were killed. 
 
 They burnt the church of Ali-Punar and killed 
 the priest. From that place only ^ve or ten persons 
 were left alive. Your brother at Kitibel with all 
 his family are killed, and both the churches are burned. 
 They forced the ministers to accept the Mohammedan 
 religion; on refusal all three were killed, the Rev. 
 Abosh, the Rev. Khidershap, and the priest. All 
 
BOO ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 wlio were left alive at Kitibel are only about forty 
 persons. Afram's brother Kisbo Avith all his family 
 were killed. At Renjil nobody is left. At Kara 
 Bash only fifty persons are left alive. The village 
 of Satou is entirely out of existence. In all this 
 province all the towns and villages are destroyed, and 
 the people are killed, except the village of Haziro, 
 which is not destroyed, and the reason is that a Turk, 
 Sevdim Beg, did not permit the Kurds and the Turks 
 to destroy it. 
 
 What will become of us hereafter we do not know. 
 We are still in danger, but we trust first in God, then 
 in such friends as you. My personal damage is $5,000 
 and now is the time to show us sympathy and help us. 
 
 If you cannot do it yourself personally, can you 
 not tell the people of the United States of America 
 to help us and relieve our suffering ? 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 TREBIZOND AND ITS ATROCITIES. 
 Trebizond is built on the shores of the Black Sea, 
 and is a part of Armenia. The population is estimated 
 at 40,000; only 10,000 are Christians; perhaps about 
 half of them are Armenians, and nearly half of the 
 Armenians were killed and wounded during the recent 
 savageries. Mr. Chelton, who was going to Armenia 
 to organize consulates, was in Trebizond, saw the mas- 
 sacre of Christians, and reported to the government 
 at Washington : — 
 
 " Trebizond, Oct. 9, 1895. — Many Armenians 
 were killed here in conflicts yesterday with Turks. 
 'No attempt was made to stop the massacre of the Ar- 
 menians. The Turks were armed, and the number of 
 troops present here is small. It is even stated that 
 
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THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 301 
 
 soldiers took part in the slaughter, and in the pillage 
 which accompanied it.'' 
 
 "London, Oct. 17, 1895.— The ^ Daily :^rews ' 
 publishes a dispatch from Constantinople giving a de- 
 scription by an eye-witness of the rioting at Trebizond. 
 He says that four separate Moslem mobs surrounded 
 the Armenian quarters at eleven o'clock on the morn- 
 ing of Oct. 8, and then began to pillage the shops. 
 Being opposed, they fired on the Armenians, and soon 
 a general massacre began. 
 
 " Soldiers joined the mob in firing on the Arme- 
 nians and in pillaging the shops and houses. The scene 
 continued until 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when noth- 
 ing was left to pillage and nobody remained to be 
 killed. The mob then began to disperse. The better 
 class of Turks did their best to protect the lives of the 
 Armenians. They sheltered the women and children 
 and many men in their houses. The mob attacked 
 only the orthodox Armenians, leaving Catholics 
 alone." 
 
 An Armenian Massacre. Money Cabled to London by the Local 
 Relief Association, Dec. 31, 1895. 
 
 " Recent letters telling of the massacres in various 
 Armenian cities contain information that helps to ex- 
 plain many points in the awful outbreak of so-called 
 Mohammedan fanaticism. A letter from Trebizond 
 says : — 
 
 "^Bahri Pasha, governor of Van, started to come 
 to Constantinople, and it was learned that he was 
 bringing with him four of the fairest young maidens 
 of Sassoun, who had been spared in the massacre, 
 to make an acceptable present of them to his Sultan. 
 This aroused the Armenian people of Trebizond to a 
 frenzy, and it was impossible to restrain the young 
 
302 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 men, the more daring of whom fired upon Bahri 
 Pasha, wounding him. But he carried out his mis- 
 sion to Constantinople, and was honored with the high- 
 est decoration and appointed governor of Adana. 
 
 " ^Afterward the pasha of Trebizond, calling twelve 
 of the leading men of the city, demanded that they 
 should hand over the young men who attacked the 
 governor, and gave them just a few hours in which to 
 carry out his orders. The next day they answered him 
 that the government had no means of finding the men 
 out. 
 
 " ^ When the mails had arrived, and the people 
 Avent toward the postofilce, the trumpet was sounded 
 three times, and both the soldiers and the mob rushed 
 upon the people. It is impossible to describe the 
 horror of the scene — the roar of the murderers, like 
 that of wild beasts, the shrieks of the women in the 
 houses from whose arms their husbands and sons were 
 torn and murdered before their eyes, and universal 
 tumult, added to the sighs and groans of the dying. 
 And this we know is only one, and not even the most 
 terrible of the massacres.' " 
 
 BAIBURT. 
 
 ^^ Constantinople, Oct. 28, 1895. — Another mas- 
 sacre of Armenians, accompanied by the outraging of 
 women, is reported to have occurred recently in the 
 districts of Baiburt, between Erzeroum and Trebizond. 
 According to the news received here, a mob of about 
 500 Mussulmans and Lazes, the greater majority of 
 whom were armed with Martini-Henry rifles, made an 
 attack upon the Armenians inhabiting several villages 
 of that vicinity, and set fire to their houses and schools. 
 As the Armenians fled in terror from their dwellings 
 they were shot down as they ran, and a number of men 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 303 
 
 and women who were captured by the rioters, it is 
 added, were fastened to stakes and burned alive. 
 
 '' The Armenian women who fell into the hands 
 of the mob, it is asserted, were outraged and brutally 
 mutilated. It is also stated that the churches were 
 desecrated and pillaged, the cattle, and all the portable 
 property of any value belonging to the Armenians 
 being carried off by the marauders. During the dis- 
 turbance 150 Armenians are reported to have been 
 killed. The surviving villages applied for protec- 
 tion to the governor of Baiburt, who, after hearing 
 their complaint, sent three policemen to the scene of 
 the massacre after the slaughter was ended. 
 
 " The Turkish officials, it is claimed^ know the 
 ringleaders of the outbreak in the Baiburt district; 
 but apparently no steps have been taken to arrest 
 them." 
 
 Another Letter from Baiburt. 
 
 " The x^nnenian bishop's vicar was killed, the 
 teachers in the schools and many other men and women 
 were massacred. Women jumped into open wells 
 to escape worse deaths; the villages round about were 
 laid waste. 
 
 " Following this was the Erzinghan massacre. On 
 Friday, the 25th of October, 1895, the Moslems fin- 
 ished their noon hour of prayer by pouring out of the 
 mosques and attacking the Armenians in the market, 
 who, taken by surprise, were shot and cut down to 
 the number of 500; their shops being all plundered." 
 (Signed) An American Missionary. 
 
 ERZEROUM. 
 
 This is a large city, almost on the boundary line 
 between Russia and Turkey, in Turkish Armenia. It 
 has about 60,000 people, one-third of whom are Ar- 
 
304 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 menians. Several times since the last Turko-Eussian 
 war the* Christian Armenians have been massacred 
 there by the Turks and the regular soldiers, and dur- 
 ing the recent atrocities also there were massacred, and 
 in all about 3,000 Armenians were killed. 
 
 Letter from Erzeroum. 
 
 " N'ov. 27, 1895. — The massacre evidently was 
 pre-arranged. It began all over the city at the 
 same moment. The bugle was sounded, and the sol- 
 diers began. They first said, " i^o harm to women or 
 children," but they soon passed those bounds. A sol- 
 dier who was on guard says the order was given by 
 the Porte. We made ready for defense, but it soon 
 appeared that the soldiers had cut off the rabble from 
 our section, for no mob passed our street. A few men 
 tried to open the door, but three well-directed shots 
 from our balcony sent them off. 
 
 " The soldiers at the head of our street, apparent- 
 ly to guard it, broke open three or four houses within 
 a stone's throw of us, and carried off everything 
 they found. We saw loads of plunder carried away 
 by soldiers. A large number of women engaged in 
 the same work. The affair began shortly after noon 
 and continued about six hours. One Armenian was 
 called to the door by an officer, who professed to be 
 friendly, and was cut down in cold blood. Others 
 w^ere cruelly murdered. The death roll must be 
 towards 300, if not more. Between fifty and sixty 
 wounded are in the hospital. 
 
 '' Two hundred were gathered in the Armenian 
 cemetery, some horribly mutilated. There must be 
 many wounded in the different houses. The pillaged 
 houses are to be counted by the hundred, ^o house 
 attacked was left until it was emptied of every movable 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 305 
 
 thing. The next day we went to an Armenian home. 
 In the middle of a small room (the kitchen), lying 
 side by side on a mat, were the bodies of two young 
 women, almost naked, a light covering thrown over 
 their heads. At the other side of the room a grief- 
 stricken woman was trying to make bread from a little 
 flour that had been left. She had to borrow utensils 
 to do it. She left her work, came forward and re- 
 moved the covering from the bodies. They were 
 those of young women developing into motherhood. 
 The head and face of one was covered with blood, 
 and she was also badly wounded in the hand. The 
 other had a bullet wound through the abdomen from 
 the right side. A companion of these two had been 
 carried off, and was lying dead in another house. Their 
 lives were sacrificed in defense of honor. 
 
 " We passed through the ruins to other rooms. 
 Boxes and furniture were in splinters, windows 
 smashed, walls ploughed with bullets. The floor was 
 covered with big patches of blood. The bodies lying 
 in the cemeteries are simply wrecks of human beings. 
 The majority have bullet wounds. ^N^early all have 
 bayonet, sword and dagger wounds, some badly muti- 
 lated. Two or three were skinned, and some were 
 burned with kerosene. A great many women are 
 missing. Very many dead have been disposed of by 
 the Turks. Hundreds have nothing to eat, and no 
 means of getting anything. The villages of the plain 
 have suffered awfully. No definite news has come; 
 only the news that columns of smoke tell." 
 
 ?? 
 
 MARASH. 
 
 The writer became acquainted with many noble 
 Armenians here during his three years in the Theolog- 
 ical Seminary, and almost all his friends were killed. 
 20 
 
806 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Among tliem were the Kev. Sdepan Jirnazian, a noble 
 Christian minister, — when I was a little boy he was 
 my pastor in the suburbs of Antioch; — Bedros Iski- 
 yan, an American citizen, butchered before his wife 
 and children; Garabed Popalian, another noble man, 
 and the richest among the Armenian Evangelical 
 people; Dr. Ivevork Gulizian; Khacher Bayramian 
 and his family; Garabed Salibian, in whose house I 
 used to take my meals. A private letter says that 
 about half the Armenians w^ere killed by the Turks. 
 Marash had about 35,000 population; about 15,000 
 were Armenians, of whom about 7,000 were killed. 
 It has four Evangelical Armenian churches there, 
 a theological seminary, and a ladies' college. The 
 local governor led the regular soldiers to plunder and 
 kill the people. 
 
 Letter from Marash. 
 
 London, Nov. 28, 1895. — The correspondent of 
 the United Press in Constantinople telegraphs, under 
 date of [N^ovember 27, that a second terrible massacre 
 has occurred in Marash, and that the houses there 
 have been pillaged without regard to who their occu- 
 pants might be. It is reported that thousands of per- 
 sons were killed and many hundred wounded. The 
 American Theological Seminary was plundered and 
 burned, and two of the students in that institution 
 were shot, one being fatally wounded. The hotels 
 and boarding houses also were plundered. The 
 Christians at Marash, and in that vicinity, thousands 
 of whom are destitute, have appealed for aid. 
 
 The following letter, under date of November 25, 
 has been received here: 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 307 
 
 '' 1 will report tlie events of the ISth in this city. 
 At 7 a. m., ahnost simultaneously the firing of 
 Martini rilies was heard all over the city, with contia- 
 grations in three Christian quarters. 
 
 '' We understood the meaning of it. Soldiers 
 began firing against two Christian houses, and their 
 inmates fled into missionary houses, and soon the sol- 
 diers were looting their buildings, followed by a mob, 
 who smashed doors and windows, and carried away 
 property. 
 
 '' Towards noon a squad of soldiers approached 
 the missionary grounds, and it was thought that a guard 
 had been sent in behalf of the missionaries. They 
 entered the grounds of the seminary and academy 
 boarding department. Two seminary students, who 
 had concealed themselves in a cave, were discovered, 
 and one of them fatally shot, while the other was 
 badly wounded. 
 
 " The soldiers looted the missionary academy board- 
 ing department of all the students' clothing and bed- 
 ding, and a part of the year's provisions in store. 
 Other soldiers joined and looted the seminary. They 
 repeatedly went to an Armenian house near by, but 
 did not force it. 
 
 " Three-quarters of that terrible day the mission- 
 aries were left to any chance fate that might befall 
 them. They had been informed by a Moslem of a 
 purpose to burn the Girls' College that day, and a 
 note had been sent to the local governor asking for a 
 special guard. He replied that the barracks near by 
 w^ere charged to care for them. It was soldiers in re- 
 lays from that very place that were wrecking every- 
 thing. 
 
 ^^ In the afternoon four or five soldiers entered the 
 seminary, and soon after, fire broke out in the rear. 
 As the flames wrapped the building, a trustworthy 
 
308 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 captain with thirty soldiers appeared at the gate, and 
 the missionaries were assured of safety. The soldiers 
 still continue with the missionaries. We cannot es- 
 timate the loss of life. Leaders of society have been 
 struck down everywhere, two missionary academy 
 teachers among them." 
 
 AKHISAR. 
 The valley of the Sakaria (the ancient Sangarius), 
 is, through a part of its course, followed by the Ana- 
 tolia line of railway. At a spot ninety miles from 
 Constantinople, where the valley broadens out into a 
 considerable plain, is the station and town of Akhisar. 
 This town was, until the tenth of. this month, the 
 center of a considerable trade. The plain is dotted 
 with vineyards, olive orchardsy mulberry gardens, 
 fields of cotton, wheat, etc. The town consists of 
 about 160 houses of immigrants from Bulgaria, Bos- 
 nia, and Rumelia (who, having been c^cerned in the 
 celebrated Bulgarian massacres, found refuge in Turk- 
 ish territory), and sixty houses of Armenians. 
 
 A Letter Oct. 15, 1895. 
 
 Thursday, Oct. 10 (a bright, beautiful day), 
 was market day. ^N^umbers of people from the sur- 
 rounding villages had come with the fruits of their 
 various industries. The market place consisted of 
 sixty-three permanent shops, and about 150 tempo- 
 rary places of trade, where traders from the surround- 
 ing country exposed their wares for sale. The mar- 
 ket was almost exclusively in the hands of Armenians, 
 200 of the shops and trading places being in their 
 hands. Rumors of danger were afloat, but the Ar- 
 menians anticipated no attack on market-day. They 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 309 
 
 had no arms, or means of defense, and had taken no 
 precautions. They soon began to notice, however, 
 that their Miissnhnan neighbors had mysterious whis- 
 perings among themselves, and that some of them were 
 searching, as with official authority, the persons of 
 Armenian young men, who were supposed to have 
 knives or revolvers about them. Those searching at 
 last found a young Armenian, a seller of calico, w^ho 
 had a knife in his possession. At once they fell upon 
 him, but he escaped in the crowd that gathered, and 
 the Mussulmans turned upon the Armenians, saying, 
 " We must kill them all. Let him who loves his 
 religion join and help." With knives and clubs the 
 work was carried on, the Armenians fleeing, or hiding 
 themselves in or about their shops. Turkish officials 
 encouraged the killers. A herald was sent through 
 the market calling, ^' Let the Moslems go to the gov- 
 ernment house." They did go, and immediately re- 
 turned with rifles and revolvers. Then the slaughter 
 increased in madness. The piteous entreaties of the 
 threatened, the shrieks of the wounded, the groans of 
 the dying, the shouts of the killers, and the hysterical 
 cries of some of the Christians, who, to save their lives 
 were calling out with desperate energy the Moham- 
 medan formula of faith, rose to the deaf heavens. 
 Ten-year-old Turkish boys, as though hunting rats, 
 rushed into holes and corners, and discovering the 
 hiding-places of the merchants and traders, called 
 to their fathers and big brothers, " Here is a Gia- 
 vour ! " and while that one was being dispatched they 
 rushed off to ferret out another. For four hours the 
 slaughter continued. Ropes were attached to the 
 feet of the corpses, which were dragged like the car- 
 casses of dogs through the streets to dry wells, into 
 which they were thrown. An old man, aged 75, was 
 tumbled in alive, and left to die among the dead bodies 
 
310 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 of his friends. The money and watches of the mer- 
 chants were secured by the ruffians. The notes of 
 hand and account books were torn into shreds (the 
 killers were debtors to the merchants), and the shop^, 
 were looted. Isot so much as a pin or needle was 
 left in the 200 shops. Then the cry was raised, " To 
 the houses ! " to complete the destruction of the Chris- 
 tian inhabitants. 
 
 Twenty-nine bodies were afterward recovered for 
 burial; thirty-three persons (some of whom afterward 
 died), were found to be wounded, and about forty are 
 still missing. The lieutenant-governor arrived that 
 night on the scene, and sent an official report (by tele- 
 gram) to Constantinople, to the effect that a row had 
 occurred between Turks and Armenians, in which 
 three Armenians had been killed and two wounded, 
 but that order had been restored ! Efforts were made 
 to cover the matter up. Christians were imprisoned 
 for talking about the massacre, or for sending the news 
 to friends. A prominent man, well-known through- 
 out the country, wished to let his circle of friends 
 know that he was still alive, and was permitted to ad- 
 vertise that he had met with an accident, but was 
 quite well. 
 
 Great patches of dried blood in the shops pre- 
 sented the appearance of places used for the slaughter 
 of sheep. Groups of people were standing before the 
 houses, statue-like, bewildered and hopeless, while 
 other groups were wailing over the news of the corpses 
 of friends, just recovered from the wells. I saw one 
 of the mutilated corpses, and have seen it night and 
 day since. 
 
 An American Missionary. 
 
 The above missionary also says not only common 
 people, but also officers of high rank, made free threats 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 3ll 
 
 of massacre, and ostentatiously sharpened tlieir swords 
 and cleaned their weapons in the presence of their 
 Armenian neighbors. Great care was taken by the 
 authorities to deprive the Armenians of arms; but the 
 Mussulmans were allowed to carry arms freely. The 
 Constantinople demonstration and consequent mas- 
 sacre aggravated the situation. It was pitiable to see 
 the fear that held the Armenians as in a nightmare, 
 and to hear the threats and observe the bearing of the 
 Turks. 
 
 A soldier, passing the door of a Christian house 
 and observing a young woman sitting on the door- 
 step, ground his teeth and called out to her, " You 
 may sit there four days more, and then I will have 
 you on the point of this bayonet.'' The girl fled in 
 terror into the house. 
 
 ZEITOON. 
 
 Zeitoon is fifteen miles from Marash. The Zeitoon- 
 lis arc the bravest of all the Armenians ; there are about 
 15,000 in the city, and no Mohammedans, save a 
 dozen or two Turkish families, and they talk the Ar- 
 menian language. Until about thirty years ago Zei- 
 toon was a free city ; but they were conquered by craft, 
 and became tributary to Turkey. The Sultan gar- 
 risoned the place to keep them down, and the troops 
 committed every sort of iniquity. Finally, about two 
 years ago, the Sultan sent physicians there to poison 
 the Armenian boys. These assassins professed to have 
 come to vaccinate the boys; every boy Avho was vac- 
 cinated died. Then the Zcitoonlis revolted, captured 
 
312 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 llie barracks from the soldiers, took all the guns 
 cannon, and ammunition, and sent the soldiers away. 
 This action enraged the Sultan, and he sent some 20,- 
 000 regular soldiers and 30,000 bashi-bazooks to punish 
 them; but they were repulsed with heavy loss by the 
 Zeitoonlis. It has been reported that during the bat- 
 tle between the Zeitoonlis and Turks about 15,000 of 
 the latter w^ere killed. Finally the Sultan lost hope 
 of conquering them, and asked the European powers 
 to use their good offices to restore peace in Zeitoon, 
 and the consuls of the different powers induced them 
 to resume peaceful work by guaranteeing that the 
 Zeitoonlis shall not be molested. But who believes 
 a word of it ? We know, with horrible clearness, of 
 how much value the powers' "guarantee" is; they 
 say there is no obligation but to keep count of the 
 massacres. 
 
 A Few statements from Zeitoon. 
 
 " Turkish mendacity is again asserting itself. A 
 few days ago the Sublime Porte set afloat the official 
 report that Zeitoon has fallen, after hard fighting, 
 in which 2,500 Armenians were said to have been 
 killed as against 250 Turks, ^ow these official re- 
 ports turn out to have been official lies. News from 
 independent sources shows that Zeitoon has not yet 
 fallen; that its gallant defenders are still holding 
 out their own. To Armenians who understand Ot- 
 toman tactics, the alacrity with which Abdul Hamid 
 sent abroad the news of the supposed victory of his 
 troops is a sign of misfortunes and reverses. The 
 Turks control the avenues of communication at Mar- 
 ash, and it is not surprising that they attempt to win 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 313 
 
 victories upon telegraphic despatches — but not at 
 Zeitoon. 
 
 The Armenians at Zeitoon are rebels against or- 
 ganized assassination, plunder, and arson. They have 
 been unwilling to submit meekly to Turkish outrages, 
 and are determined to defend their lives, their homes, 
 and their property. They have vanquished Turkish 
 armies before, and strewn the ground with thousands 
 of Turkish carcasses. They need fear nothing but 
 the lack of supplies. Will not Christian nations inter- 
 vene to save a valiant people who are defending their 
 homes and their liberties, and who cannot be conquered 
 by force of arms, yet who may be compelled to sur- 
 render to inexorable hunger ? — [Tigram H. Suni, 
 Dec. 31. 
 
 " London, Feb. 3. — A dispatch from Constanti- 
 nople to the ' Daily ^ews ' says : ' Reports from 
 Turkish sources believed to be fairly accurate state 
 that it is believed that the Zeitoonlis art.< still holding 
 out. The Turks have made seven different attacks 
 upon the town, but all have failed, and their losses 
 are reported to amount to 10,000. It is alleged that 
 50,000 troops will be needed to capture Zeitoon. 
 
 "It is believed that the Zeitoonlis number from 
 15,000 to 20,000, well armed, and provisioned for a 
 year. There is a doubtful report that 4,000 Russian 
 Armenians crossed the Persian frontier, and defeated 
 the Turks at Siz, eighteen hours from Zeitoon, and 
 have joined the Zeitoonlis.'^ 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 In the province of Aleppo, the village of Chizek, 
 the Armenian priest was killed for refusing to become 
 a Mohammedan. 
 
 In the province of Erzeroum and the district of 
 
314 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Erzinghan, six separate attacks for pillage have been 
 made upon the village of Zimara, and great pressure 
 is being used to force the people of the village to be- 
 come Mohammedans. 
 
 At the village of Gazma the houses have been pil- 
 laged, and mimbers of the people have become Mo- 
 hammedans to save their lives. 
 
 In the province of Bitlis a considerable number 
 of Armenians at Sert have been forced to become Mo- 
 hammedans. In the district of Shirvan, out of twen- 
 ty-two Armenian villages, the inhabitants of four en- 
 tire villages have become Mohammedans to save their 
 lives. The priests also accepted Mohammedanism, 
 and the churches have been changed into mosques. 
 At a little village at which the inhabitants could not 
 disperse over the mountains a considerable number 
 were killed, and the survivors accepted Mohammedan- 
 ism. This village is called Kourine. In the district 
 of Chilain, returns from six villages have come in 
 which show a considerable number of persons killed 
 for refusing to accept Islamism. 
 
 In the province of Van the stuffed skin of the su- 
 perior of the monastery of Khizan was still hanging 
 from a tree in front of the monastery three weeks 
 after the massacre took place; that is, at the date of 
 the last news from there, ^ov. 27. At Khar- 
 kotz in this province three priests accepted Moham- 
 medanism, and were paraded through the streets in 
 the dress of Mohammedan ulema in order to influence 
 the people to follow their example. 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 315 
 
 In tlie province of Ilarpoot in many of the smaller 
 villages, where the people have been supposed by the 
 Turks to be mere peasants, without ideas of their own, 
 the oifer of Islamism has not been made, but the people 
 seized without ceremony and circumcised by force, 
 and are considered now as Mohammedans. At Ha- 
 boosi, in this province, the Christian dead were left 
 unburied in the streets for the dogs to eat. The Ar- 
 menian church and the Protestant chapel and par- 
 sonage were burned. 
 
 At Peri, in the same province, 450 Christians were 
 made Mohammedans by threats of death. 
 
 At Aivos in the same province, all the buildings 
 were destroyed. The Armenian priest was forced to 
 give the call to prayer, and was then shot for refusing 
 to become a Moslem. 
 
 At Garmuri the Christians accepted Mohamme- 
 danism at the edge of the sword, and have been cir- 
 cumcised. The Protestant chapel and parsonage were 
 burned, and the Armenian church has been seized and 
 made into a mosque. 
 
 At Hokh the Armenian church and Protestant 
 chapel and parsonage were burned. 
 
 At Houilu in the province of Harpoot, 266 out of 
 300 Christian houses were burned, among them the 
 fine new Protestant church. Two priests were killed. 
 Ifany of the people succeeded in escaping from the 
 village. The rest have been forced to declare them- 
 selves Mohammedans. ■ 
 
 The events above mentioned took place in the main 
 
316 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 between ^NTov. 6 and ^ov. 20. But the process 
 of forced conversion and the murder of indi- 
 viduals who refuse to accept Mohammedanism was 
 still going on as lately ^s the 20tli of December, when 
 the Turkish government was assuring the European 
 Ambassadors that all is quiet in Asiatic Turkey, and 
 that all that is necessary to complete the work of paci- 
 fication is for Turkey to be let alone. 
 
 The nature of the pacification which may be ex- 
 pected if Turkey is left free to carry out its schemes 
 for these provinces may be judged from the following 
 list of educated and influential Protestant ministers, 
 who have been put to death for refusing to embrace 
 Mohammedanism. In every case the offer of life 
 on these terms was made; in several cases time was 
 allowed for consideration of the proposal ; and in each 
 case faith in Jesus Christ was the sole crime charged 
 against the victim. 
 
 1. Rev. Krikor, pastor at Ichme, killed l^ov. 6, 1895. 
 
 2. Rev. Ivrikor Tamzarien. 
 
 3. Rev. Boghos Atlasian, killed ISTov. 13. 
 
 4. Rev. Mardiros Siraganian, of Arabkir, killed 
 
 'Nov. 13. 
 
 5. Rev. Garabed Tvilijjian of Sivas, killed ^ov. 12. 
 
 6. Rev. Mr. Stepan, of the Anglican Church at Ma- 
 
 rash, killed ^ov. 18. 
 
 7. The preacher of the village of Hajin, killed at 
 
 Mar ash T^ov. 18. 
 
 8. Rev. Tvrikor Baghdasarian, retired preacher at 
 
 Harpoot, l^ov. 18. 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 317 
 
 9. Retired preacher at Divrik, killed IN^ov. 8. 
 
 10. Rev. Garabed Resseian, pastor at Cherwouk, 
 
 Nov. 5. 
 
 11. Rev. Metean Minasian, pastor at Slierik, Kov. 
 
 12. Pastor at Cutteroul, I^ov. 6. 
 
 13. Preacher at Cntteroul, E^ov. 6. 
 
 14. Rev. Sarkis N^arkashjian, pastor at Chounkoush, 
 
 Nov. 14. 
 
 15. The pastor of the church at Severek, iN^ovember. 
 
 16. The pastor of the church at Adiyaman. 
 
 17. Rev. Hohannes Hachadorian, pastor at Kilisse, 
 
 ivTov. 7. 
 
 18. The preacher at Karabesh, near Diarbekir, 
 
 Xov. 7. 
 
 19. Rev. Mardiros Tarzian, pastor at Keserik, near 
 
 Harpoot, jSs^ovember. 
 
 TELEGRAMS FROM HAJIN (ARMENIA). 
 
 To the English Consul at Aleppo, and to the English Ambassador 
 of Constantinople. 
 
 All the suburban towns of Hajin where Christians 
 live were plundered bv Mohammedans, and some of 
 the Christians were killed. The people of Hajin and 
 we are in danger; immediate help is needed. — Nov. 5, 
 1895. 
 
 To the American Minister at Constantinople. 
 
 The Christian villages of Hajin were totally plun- 
 dered by the Mohammedans. About two thousand, 
 naked and hungry, ran away and came to Hajin. 
 Both the Christian people at Hajin and we are in dan- 
 ger; immediate help is needed. — Nov. 5, 1895. 
 
318 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Extracts from a Hajin Letter. 
 
 My Dear Sir:— IS'ov. 25, 1895. 
 
 The situation is growing worse here. All the 
 suburban Christian villages were plundered by Mo- 
 hammedans. Some of the villages which were plun- 
 dered were as follows: — Shar-Dere, Roumlou, Kok- 
 ooun, and Dash-olouk. All of them are left naked 
 and hungry. Came here to our city, and we are taking- 
 care of them. And the government never punished 
 any of the plunderers. They were encouraged, and 
 surrounded our city, and nobody can go out of the 
 city, and if this continues so, we shall have a famine 
 soon, and die in the city. The government does not 
 protect us, but helps the plunderers, and we are con- 
 tinually threatened to be killed. Our only hope is 
 in God. 
 
 Another Extract from a Letter op an Armenian. 
 
 E"ov. 25, 1895. 
 My Dear Uncle : — * 
 
 If vou ask our condition, thank God that we are 
 alive. But beside life we have nothing, no comfort, 
 no happiness, no property, no church, no religion, all 
 are taken from us. Though we are alive, many of 
 our number were killed, and those -who survive are 
 wandering here and there, naked and hungry, and 
 are dying in that manner. 
 
 God is angry, and exceedingly angry to us. Per- 
 haps he will hear your prayers; pray for us, or else 
 all of us shall perish. I can never describe the hor- 
 rible situation in which we are put. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 319 
 FROM HADISH VILLAGE, ARMENIA. 
 
 My Dear Friend;— Dec. 2, 1895. 
 
 In great sorrow and in despair I am compelled to 
 write to you a few lines to inform you of our most 
 miserable condition. 
 
 The Turks and Kurds came to our village, plun- 
 dered everything we had, killed more than 600 per- 
 sons, violated the women and girls, tortured the preg- 
 nant women, and now we who survive have nothing to 
 live on. Naked, hungry, cold, hopeless, we are cry- 
 ing bitterly. I write these few lines; perhaps you 
 can inform the Christian world and they may help us 
 and relieve our sufferings. Yours truly, 
 
 There are many other cities, towns, and villages in 
 Armenia, where thousands of people were tortured 
 and killed, their houses burned and plundered, their 
 children kidnapped, the women violated. But there 
 is no space to put all here in this book. I am sure the 
 reader will be satisfied with reading this long chapter 
 of Armenian horrors, and the letters on the atrocities 
 from different reliable sources. 
 
 To sum up, during these frightful scenes in Ar- 
 menia more than 100,000 Armenians were killed, and 
 half a million left without food, homes, or clothing; 
 they are dying in heaps ; and there is no hope of getting 
 any help from Armenia itself, even when the spring 
 comes, for those who would have supported them are 
 killed, and most of the destitute are women and chil- 
 dren. Everything, even to clothes, is taken from 
 them, the head of the family is killed, and they are 
 left hopeless and in despair. How long can the Ked 
 
320 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Cross Society help tliem ? How long can tlie Ameri- 
 can people help them ? ]Not very long; when spring 
 conies they will say, '^ We have done all we could for 
 the Armenians; let them take care of themselves.'' 
 But will they stop to think how the Armenians can 
 take care of themselves ? Have they oxen and horses 
 to plough ? ^o. Is there any man left to support 
 his wife and children ? No. Suppose here and there 
 an Armenian is left (I mean in the country places, 
 not in the cities), dare he go out to his field and work ? 
 No. Were any of those who plundered and killed 
 punished ? No. What guarantee can we have, then, 
 that those who survive will not be killed or plundered 
 in their turn ? None. Will the European powers 
 who signed the Berlin Treaty give any assurance to 
 the Armenians that they will be protected hereafter ? 
 No. Is the Sultan a better man since the massacre ? 
 No. Are the Turks and Kurds better people since 
 the atrocities ? No. They are worse than ever 
 before, because they have a freer hand, and all their 
 passions are roused to greater strength. Well, then, 
 if these are all facts, what is the use of feeding people 
 a few weeks merely to keep them alive for another mas- 
 sacre that will finish the rest of them ? 
 
 O reader, do not be cheated. The Armenians need 
 practical aid, not deceptive aid. I mean the Armen- 
 ians must be liberated from the cruel Sultan; if not, 
 no aid is given to the Armenians. Because the fu- 
 ture will be worse than ever before. 
 
 Thus far I have continually assumed and tried to 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 321 
 
 prove that the Sultan of Turkey deliberately ordered 
 all these atrocities committed. But perhaps you will 
 doubt the statement of a native; you will think I am 
 prejudiced. Therefore I will give you American tes- 
 timonies from reliable sources. .Please read the fol- 
 lowing from the '^ Review of Reviews '' : — 
 
 THE MASSACRES IN TURKEY. 
 
 From Oct. 1, 1895, to Jan. 1, 1896. 
 Certain persons in Europe and America, misled by 
 statements of the Turkish government, have ascribed 
 the dreadful massacres which have taken place in 
 Asia Minor to sudden and spontaneous outbreaks of 
 Moslem fanaticism, caused by a revolutionary attitude 
 among the Armenians themselves. The truth is that 
 these massacres, while sudden, have taken place ac- 
 cording to a deliberate and preconcerted plan. Ac- 
 cording to the statement of many persons, French, 
 English, Canadian, American, Turk, Kurd and Ar- 
 menian, — persons trustworthy and intelligent, who 
 were in the places where the massacres occurred, and 
 who were eye-witnesses of the horrible scenes, — the 
 outbreaks were under careful direction in regard to 
 place, time, nationality of the victims and of the per- 
 petrators, were prompted by a common motive, and 
 their true character has been systematically concealed 
 by Turkish official reports. The following paper is 
 based upon full accounts of the massacres, written on 
 the ground by the parties above referred to. Their 
 names, for obvious reasons, cannot be made public. 
 
 I. In Regard to Place. 
 
 With only four exceptions of consequence, the 
 massacres have been confined to the territory of the 
 six provinces where reforms were to be instituted. 
 21 
 
322 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 AVlien a band of two tliousand Kurdish and Circas- 
 sian raiders approached the boundary between the 
 provinces of Sivas and Angora, they were turned back 
 by the officials, who told them that they had no author- 
 ity to pass beyond the province of Sivas. The only 
 large places wdiere outrages occurred outside of the 
 six provinces are Trebizond, Marash, Aintab, and 
 Cesarea, in all of which the Moslems were excited 
 by the nearness of the scenes of massacre, and by the 
 reports of the plunder which other Moslems were 
 securing. 
 
 II. In Regard to Time. 
 
 The massacre in Trebizond occurred just as the 
 Sultan, after six months of refusal, was about to con- 
 sent to the scheme of reforms, as if to warn the powers 
 that in case they persisted, the mine was already laid 
 for the destruction of the Armenians. In fact, the 
 massacre of the Armenians is Turkey^s real reply to 
 the demands of Europe that she reform. From Tre- 
 bizond the wave of murder and robbery swept on 
 through almost every city, and town, and village in 
 the six j)rovinces where relief was promised to the Ar- 
 menians. When the news of the first massacre 
 reached Constantinople, a high Turkish official re- 
 marked to one of the Ambassadors that massacre was 
 like the small-pox; they must all have it, but they 
 wouldn't need it the second time. 
 
 III. The Nationality of the Victims. 
 
 They were exclusively Armenians. In Trebi- 
 zond there is a large Greek population, but neither 
 there nor elsewhere have the Greeks been molested. 
 Special care has also been taken to avoid injury to the 
 subjects of foreign nations, with the idea of escaping 
 foreign complications and the payment of indemni- 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 323 
 
 ties. The only marked exceptions were in Marasli, 
 where three school buildings belonging to the Ameri- 
 can Mission were looted, and one building was burned; 
 and in Harpoot, where the school buildings and houses 
 belonging to the American Mission were plundered 
 and eight buildings were burned, the total losses ex- 
 ceeding $100,000, for which no indemnity has yet 
 been paid. 
 
 IV. The Method of Killing and Pillaging. 
 
 The method in the cities has been to kill within 
 a limited period the largest number of Armenians, — 
 especially men of business, capacity, and intelligence^ 
 — and to beggar their families by robbing them, as 
 far as possible, of their property. Hence, in almost 
 every place the massacres have been perpetrated during 
 the business hours, when the Armenians could be 
 caught in their shops. In almost every place, the 
 Moslems made a sudden and simultaneous attack just 
 after their noonday prayer. The surprised and un- 
 armed Armenians made little or no resistance, and 
 where, as at Diarbekir and Gurun, they undertook to 
 defend themselves, they suffered the more. The kill- 
 ing was done with guns, revolvers, swords, clubs, pick- 
 axes, and every conceivable weapon, and many of the 
 dead were horribly mangled. The shops and houses 
 were absolutely gutted. 
 
 Upon hundreds of villages the Turks and Kurds 
 came down like the hordes of Tamerlane, robbed the 
 helpless peasants of their flocks and herds, stripped 
 them of their very clothing, and carried away their 
 bedding, cooking utensils, and even the little stores 
 of provisions which they had with infinite care and 
 toil laid up for the severities of a rigorous winter. 
 Worst of all is the bitter cry that comes from every 
 
324 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 quarter that the Moslems carried off hundreds of Chris- 
 tian women and children. 
 
 The number killed in the massacres thus far is 
 estimated at fifty thousand, which includes the major- 
 ity of the well-to-do, capable, intelligent Armenians 
 in the six provinces that were to have been reformed. 
 The property plundered or destroyed is estimated at 
 $40,000,000. JS^ot less than three hundred and fifty 
 thousand wretched survivors, most of whom are wo- 
 men and children, are in danger of perishing by star- 
 vation and exposure unless foreign aid is promptly 
 sent and allowed to reach them. 
 
 V. The Perpetrators. 
 
 They were the resident Moslem population, rein- 
 forced by Xurds, Circassians, and in several cases by 
 the Sultan's soldiers and officers, w^ho began the dread- 
 ful work at the sound of a bugle, and desisted when the 
 bugle signaled to them to stop. This was notoriously 
 true in Erzeroum. In Harpoot, also, the soldiers took 
 a prominent part, firing on the bvuldings of the Ameri- 
 can Mission with Martini-Henry rifles and Krupp 
 cannon. A shell from one of the cannon burst in the 
 house of the American ^lissionary. Dr. Barnum. In 
 most places the killing was by the Turks, while the 
 Kurds and Circassians were intent on plunder, and gen- 
 erally killed only to strike terror or when they met with 
 resistance. It is an utter mistake to suppose, as some 
 have, that the local authorities could not have sup- 
 pressed the " fanatical " Moslem mobs and restrained 
 the Tvurds. The fact is that the authorities, after 
 lookins" on while the massacres were in progress, did 
 generallv intervene and stop the slaughter as soon as 
 the limited period during which the Moslems were 
 allowed to kill and rob had expired. 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 325 
 
 At Marsovan tlie limit of time was four hours. In 
 several places the slaughter and pillage continiied 
 from noon till sundown, or later. At Sivas they con- 
 tinued for a whole day. In every place the carnage 
 stopped as soon as the authorities made an earnest ef- 
 fort, and had it not been for their intervention after 
 the set time of one, two, or three days, the entire Ar- 
 menian population might have been exterminated. 
 
 VI. The Motive of the Tueks. 
 
 This is apparent to the superficial observer. The 
 scheme of reforms devolved civil officers, judgeships, 
 and police participation on Mohammedans and non- 
 ]\Iohammedans in the six provinces proportionately, 
 'iliis, while simple justice, was a bitter pill to the Mo- 
 hammedans, who had ruled the Christians with a rod 
 of iron for five hundred years. All that was needed 
 to make the scheme of reforms inoperative was to 
 alter the proportion of Christians to Mohammedans. 
 This policy was at once relentlessly and thoroughly ex- 
 ecuted. The number of the Armenians has been dimin- 
 ished, first by killing at a single blow those most capa- 
 ble of taking a part in any scheme of reconstruction, 
 and secondly by compelling the survivors to die of 
 starvation, exposure, and sickness, or to become Mos- 
 lems. 
 
 It is the very essence of Mohammedanism that the 
 '" ghiavour " has no right to live, save in subjection. 
 The abortive scheme of Europe insisting on the rights 
 of Armenians as men, has enraged the Moslems against 
 them. The arrogant and non-progressive Turks know 
 that in a fair and equal race the Christians will out- 
 strip them in every department of business and in- 
 dustry, and they see in any fair scheme of reforms the 
 handwriting on the wall for themselves. If the 
 scheme of reforms had applied to regions where 
 
'^26 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Greeks predominate, the latter would have been killed 
 and robbed as readily as the Armenians have been. 
 Are the Greek massacres of 1822 forgotten, when 
 50,000 were killed, or the slaughter of 12,000 Maron- 
 ites and Syrians in 1860, and of 15,000 Bulgarians in 
 187G ^ 
 
 VII. Turkish Official Reports. 
 
 The refinement of cruelty appears in this, that the 
 Turkish government has attempted to cover up its 
 hideous policy by the most colossal lying and hypoc- 
 risy. It is true that on Sept. 30, 1895, some 
 hot-headed young Armenians, contrary to the entrea- 
 ties of the Armenian patriarch and the orders of the 
 police, attempted to take a well-worded petition to 
 the Grand Yezir, according to a time-honored custom. 
 It is also true that the oppressed mountaineers of 
 Zeitoon drove out a small garrison of Turkish soldiers, 
 whom, however, they treated with humanity ; it is like- 
 wise true that in various places individual Armenians, 
 in despair, have advocated violent methods. But the 
 universal testimony of impartial foreign eye-witnesses 
 is that, with the above exceptions, the Armenians have 
 given no provocation, and that almost, if not quite, 
 all the telegrams purporting to come from the provin- 
 cial authorities accusing the Armenians with provoking 
 the massacres, are sheer fabrications of names and 
 dates. If the Armenians made attacks, where are the 
 Turkish dead ? 
 
 And the dreadful alternative of Islam or death 
 was offered by those who have dazzled and deceived 
 Europe with Hatti Shereps and Hatti Humayouns, pro- 
 mulgating civil equality and religious liberty for their 
 Christian subjects. 
 
 Strangest of all, he who is the head of all authority 
 in Turkey, and responsible above anv and all others 
 for the cold-blooded massacres and plundering of the 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 327 
 
 past two months, wrote a letter to Lord Salisbury, and 
 pledged his word of honor that the scheme of reforms 
 should be carried out to the letter, at the very moment 
 when he was directing the massacres. And the six 
 great Christian powers of Europe, as well as the United 
 States, still treat this man with infinite courtesy and 
 deference; their representatives still dine at his tables, 
 and some of them still receive his decorations. 
 
 VIII. The Solution. 
 
 If the Armenians are to be left as they are, it is a 
 pity that Europe ever mentioned them in the treaty of 
 Berlin or subsequently; and to intrust reforms in be- 
 half of the Armenians to those who have devoted 
 two months' time to killing and robbing them is sim- 
 ply to abandon the Armenians to destruction, and to 
 put the seal of Europe to the bloody Avork. The only 
 way to reform Eastern Turkey is by forcible foreign 
 intervention — not the threat of it, but the inter- 
 A^ention itself. 
 
 The position and power of Russia give her a unique 
 call to this work. Should she enter on it at once, the 
 whole civilized world would approve her course. 
 
 Russia should have as free a hand in Kurdistan 
 as England has insisted on having in Egypt. By 
 frankly admitting this, England would gain in the 
 respect and sympathy of the world, and strengthen 
 her own position. 
 
 INFERENCES FROM THE ARMENIAN ATROCITIES. 
 
 Eirst : That devotion to Christ is not lessened but 
 increased. Many peojjle think the spirit of unbelief 
 and indifferentism has spread so widely that in this 
 nineteenth century people will no longer die for Christ. 
 But out of 100,000 Armenians massacred, 00,000 
 
328 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 were actually martyred because tliey would not deny 
 Christ. In all lands, Christians praise the old martyrs, 
 the church fathers: let them know that there are as 
 noble church sons and daughters to-day in Armenia 
 as there were church fathers anywhere in the early 
 centuries. Thus these hideous scenes ought to awaken 
 a true Christian spirit both in this country and in Eu- 
 rope. 
 
 Second: That it was a religious persecution. 
 Though the false and cruel Sultan gave a political 
 color to it, his universal order was to offer the Ar- 
 menians the choice of Mohammedanism or death. 
 This is proved by the fact that the leading gospel min- 
 isters were specially chosen for martyrdom. And 
 some of the Armenian priests, after having been con- 
 verted by force, to escape unbearable tortures, were 
 led through the streets, followed by great crowds, as a 
 Avarning to the remaining Armenians that they 
 must follow the same road. When some of them did 
 it, the Turks forced them to take arms and kill their 
 brothers and sisters for refusing to accept Mohamme- 
 danism. To speak of the massacres as political affairs 
 is doing injustice to the cause of Christ. 
 
 Third : That whatever a man sows, he shall reap 
 the same. The Sultan and the Turks are sowing, — 
 they are killing, and thousands of the Christians are 
 converted by force to Mohammedanism; but the time 
 is coming when more Mohammedans will be killed 
 than Armenians have been, and thousands, and even 
 millions of the Mohammedans will be converted to 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 329 
 
 Christianity^ and the blood of the Armenian martyrs 
 will be the means of their salvation through Jesus 
 Christ. The time is coming when out of this great 
 persecution a great and happy freedom will proceed. 
 Out of this great darkness a very bright light shall 
 shine. 
 
 Fourth: Some of the Turks helped and saved 
 the Armenians. Certainly these were secret converts 
 to Christianity, but their lives being in danger, they 
 cannot confess Christ publicly. All they can do for 
 the present is to help the needy Christians and save 
 them from murder. Another class of Turks who helped 
 is those who were themselves getting a living out of the 
 Armenians. The Armenians gave them employment, 
 and if their employers were killed, how could they 
 get a living ? Still another class protected the Ar- 
 menians, because if the Armenian houses were burned, 
 their houses also would be burned; and they asked 
 and got money from the Armenians as a reward for 
 having saved them. It is a mistake to think that there 
 are good Mohammedans, who, from a good Mohamme- 
 dan motive helped the Armenians. There cannot be 
 a good Mohammedan motive towards a Christian; if 
 there is a good motive, it is not a Mohammedan motive. 
 
 Fifth: That the time has come when American 
 and European Christians should trust no longer in the 
 promises of the Sultan and the European governments, 
 but as Christian people must use something more than 
 " moral principle " before all the Armenians and Am- 
 erican missionaries are killed. Moral influence 
 
Sao ARMENIA AND HEH PEOPLE. 
 
 is very good as far as it goes ; being a Christian minis- 
 ter, 1 also believe in it. But as far as the Turks are 
 concerned it can do nothing, because they do not know 
 what morals are, or what moral character is. All the 
 Turks are morally corrupt. They know only two 
 things; one is the sword, the other is moral corrup- 
 tion. They came and captured that country by the 
 sword, and they must go by the sword ; there is no other 
 way. Europe tried the experiment century after cen- 
 tury, but could lind no other way. Moral advice, wise 
 counsel have never moved the Turks, and will never 
 move them hereafter. Europe and a part of Armenia 
 Avere taken from them by the sword, and the only way 
 Armenia and the Armenians can be saved is by using 
 the sword. When Christ comes again He will never 
 yield; He will never be crucified, but he will judge 
 and condemn. The time has come when Christians 
 have suffered enough; they must unite and remove 
 that great curse, the Mohammedan power, and make 
 free that happy and beautiful Bible Land, Armenia 
 and Palestine. 
 
 Reader, you cannot go and visit to-day the places 
 where man was created, where Noah's ark rested. You 
 cannot go in safety to visit the places where 
 Christ was born and walked. Why ? Simply 
 because a corrupt Mohammedan power wills there, 
 and will not permit you. Is it not a shame to mighty 
 Christian nations and powers that this is so ? Will 
 not the Christian nations be aroused with great indig- 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 831 
 
 nation and give the last blow to such a cruel Moham- 
 medan tyranny ^ 
 
 Sixth: That Turkey is a mere barbarism; it is 
 not to be considered or treated as a nation, for it is not 
 one in any sense. International law cannot be ap- 
 plied to Turkey. The Sultan must be considered as a 
 brigand, a mere lawless oppressor, and the Turks as 
 mere murderers, and dealt with accordingly. The 
 powers must give up the farce of treating the Sultan 
 as a national sovereign, who speaks for his people, and 
 may govern, therefore, much as he pleases. As Mr. 
 W. W. Howard says, '^ The blackest spot in the round 
 -world is the heart of the Sultan of Turkey.'^ 
 
 A Farewell Letter from a Prominent Armenian. 
 March 24, 1896. 
 
 " We are evidently a doomed people. A hundred 
 thousand of us have been butchered, and more than 
 a million of us are in extreme suffering from hunger, 
 and cold, and nakedness. Multitudes beyond the 
 reach of foreign aid must inevitably perish before 
 spring. As to the rest of us, our supplies of food 
 and money are rapidly diminishing. IVe can prose- 
 cute no business, we are not at liberty to earn our 
 daily bread, and for even the most fortunate, the 
 future has only the prospect of starvation a little later 
 than our poor brethren. 
 
 " We hear the announcement that order and peace 
 are being restored, but to us these are empty words. 
 The terrible and wholesale massacre at Oorfa and Bir- 
 idjik occurred long subsequent to the most solemn and 
 emphatic assurances that nothing more of the kind 
 was to be apprehended, — long after the commission 
 sent out from Constantinople to carry the message of 
 
332 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 peace and reform to Armenia liad readied its field of 
 labor. 
 
 '' Massacres are not now so frequent as tliey were 
 a few months ago, but the attitude of relentless hos- 
 tility on the part of the government towards us, the 
 ferocious aspect of our Moslem neighbors, has not a 
 whit improved. They seem to be eagerly watching 
 for an opportune moment in which to finish their 
 bloody work, and rid themselves forever of this trouble- 
 some demand for reform. 
 
 " May we not then rightfully offer our farewell 
 message to our fellow men ? 
 
 ^' First — To our Moslem fellow countrymen: 
 
 " We desire to express our deepest gratitude to 
 those of you who have sympathized with and helped 
 us in these days of calamity and bloodshed. Towards 
 those who liaA^e robbed and massacred us, and plun- 
 dered and burned our houses, we have chiefly feel- 
 ings of compassion. You have perhaps done these 
 terrible things in what has seemed to you the service 
 of your religion and government. 
 
 " Second — To our Sultan — most dread and 
 potent sovereign: 
 
 " Apparently you have been persuaded that we 
 are a rebellious people deserving only utter and speedy 
 extermination. For such as vou, this work of de- 
 struction is no doubt an easy one, the more so as 
 we have had neither the means nor the disposition to 
 resist it. 
 
 '' Third — To the European powers: 
 
 " We have not been an importunate nor a turbu- 
 lent people. We did not incite the Crimean War, nor 
 any of the subsequent wars Avhich have stricken this 
 empire. It is not of our will that we were begotten 
 to a ncAv political life by the treaty of 1856. Our 
 complaints and appeals have been based solely on 
 
THE TURKISH ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA. 333 
 
 the sentiment of humanity and the common rights of 
 man. It was you who arranged the '' scheme of re- 
 forms/' and urged it upon our Sultan till he was ir- 
 ritated to the extent that he seems to have adopted 
 the plan of ridding himself finally of this annoyance 
 by exterminating us as a people; and now, while he 
 is relentlessly carrying out this plan, you are standing 
 by as spectators and witnesses of this bloody work. 
 
 " We w^onder if sympathy and the brotherhood of 
 n.an and chivalry are wholly things of the past, or 
 are the material and political interests dividing you 
 so great that the massacre of the whole people is a 
 secondary thing ? In either case ^^ We who are about 
 to die salute you." 
 
 ^^ Fourth — To the Christians of America : 
 " Although we have cherished strong prejudice 
 against your mission work among us, recent events 
 have proved that our Protestant brethren are one with 
 us, and have shared fully our anxieties and our perils. 
 You have labored through them to promote among us 
 the peace and prosperity of the gospel. It is not your 
 fault that one result of their teaching and example 
 has been to excite our masters against us. The Turk- 
 ish government dreads and dislikes nothing so much as 
 the ideas of progress which you have sent us." 
 
YIII. 
 
 THE AKMENIANS OF TO-DAY. 
 
 There are about five millions of Armenians in the 
 world at present: three millions in the Turkish Em- 
 pire, a million and a half in Russian Armenia, and 
 half a million more scattered through Persia, India, 
 and Burmah, Egypt, Europe (there are two or three 
 hundred thousand in the Austrian Empire), and 
 America. There are poor and ignorant people among 
 them, as among every people; the majority, however, 
 are (or were before the late horrors) well off, and 
 many of them rich, educated, refined, and, in a word, 
 modern Christian people. Of all the impudent inver- 
 sions of truth ever perpetrated;- the most outrageously 
 impudent and shamelessly the exact contrary of fact 
 is the assertion of Mavroyeni Bey, the Turkish min- 
 ister at Washington, that the case of the Turks against 
 the Armenians is like that of the whites against the 
 Indians in this country; that the American whites 
 must be allowed to keep the Indians down, and the 
 Turks must be allowed to keep the Armenians down. 
 If the Indians possessed all the money, all the intel- 
 ligence, all the cultivation, and all the morals in Amer- 
 ica, and the whites were a mob of ignorant, cruel, lust- 
 ful ruffians holding them down by the organized 
 
 (334) 
 
AN ARMENIAN FAMILY. 
 
 ANATOLIA COLLEGE AT MAESOVAN. 
 
THE ARMENIANS OF TO-DAY. 335 
 
 power of the sword, the comparison would be just. As 
 it is, the Turks correspond fairly enough with the In- 
 dians, and the Armenians to the whites, in every other 
 respect than military power. Does a Turk — a true 
 Turk — ever write a book ? Does he ever publish 
 a newspaper, or read one ^ Does he ever build a 
 church, or pay attention to the moral precepts taught 
 in one ? Does he ever found or manage a business, 
 or even an estate ? In a word, does he have any more 
 intellectual, moral, or business part in the life of mod- 
 ern civilization than a Hottentot or a Matabele ? And 
 do not the Armenians do and have all these things ? 
 Are they not in the stream of the same kind of cul- 
 tivated Christian life led bv Americans ? Nowhere 
 else on earth, but in the Turkish Empire, can one find 
 millions of gentlemen and ladies and civilized modern 
 citizens ruled over, oppressed, and massacred in hun- 
 dreds of thousands by a gang of mediaeval Asiatic 
 barbarians, not advanced from the time of Timour or 
 Jenghiz Khan. It is the greatest anarchronism and 
 monstrosity of modern times. 
 
 If my Avork is thought prejudiced, listen to what 
 is said of them by men of the first authority, — the 
 greatest statesmen, the best informed special corre- 
 spondent, and one of the chief historians of England 
 at the present time. First the statesman: — 
 
 " The Armenians are the representatives of one 
 of the oldest civilized Christian races, and beyond all 
 doubt one of the most pacific, one of the most industri- 
 ous, and one of the most intelligent races in the world." 
 — [Gladstone. 
 
336 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Xext the special correspondent: — 
 
 " The x\rmenians constitute the whole civilizing ele- 
 ment in Anatolia (Asia Minor) ; peaceful to the degree 
 of self-sacrifice, law-abiding to their own undoing, 
 and industrious and hopeful under conditions which 
 would appall the majority of mankind. At their best, 
 they are tlie stuff of which heroes and martyrs are 
 moulded." — [E. J. Dillon. 
 
 Lastly the historian : — 
 
 '' The best chance for the future of the Asiatic 
 provinces of Turkey lies in the uprising of a progress- 
 ive Christian people, which may ultimately grow into 
 an independent Christian state. The Armenians have, 
 alone among the races of Western Asia, the gifts that 
 can enable them to aspire to this mission. They are 
 keen-witted, energetic, industrious, apt to learn, and 
 quick in assimilating western ideas." — [James Bryce. 
 
 IN THE TURKISH EMPIRE. 
 
 There are about two millions of Armenians in Ar- 
 menia Proper, and another million scattered through 
 the rest of the empire. The absurd figures given by 
 some writers, making them greatly less than this (one 
 magazine editor got it down to 300,000 ! It is sig- 
 nificant that he was a strong apologist for the mas- 
 sacre, and laid all the blame to the Armenians) result 
 mostly from taking the ofiicial statistics of the Turk- 
 ish government. !N^ow, there are three reasons why 
 these are always grossly wrong ; of no more value than 
 the weather predictions in an almanac, and always 
 wrong in the direction of understating the numbers. 
 
 One is that it is the Sultan's interest to make them 
 as small as possible, that the Armenians may not be 
 
THE ARMENIANS OF TO-DAY. 337 
 
 considered to have the right to autonomy as a nation; 
 the fewer they are, and the more outnumbered by the 
 Turks, the less right they seem to have. ^' An in- 
 dependent Armenia ? " shriek the Turkish ministers 
 and officers. " Why, there are only a few hundred 
 thousand Armenians in their so-called country, and 
 even so, there are three Turks to one Armenian in 
 that very district ! " 
 
 The second is that in an Oriental country a census 
 is not a means of knowledge but an engine of taxation. 
 The ruler has no care for information on the subject 
 for his own sake, as Western governments have. What 
 he wants is to see how many people and in what places 
 he can screw more taxes out of. The people know 
 this as well as he, and use every effort to outwit his 
 agents, and prevent them from knowing their num- 
 bers. This is why even civilized governments ruling 
 over Oriental nations can rarely get any nearer than a 
 rough guess at the numbers of the nation; the inhabi- 
 tants are suspicious, and resort to falsehood. In the 
 case of the Armenians, remember what I said in the 
 first chapter about an Armenian being taxed for every 
 male child he has, every year as long as the child lives ; 
 naturally, he will not tell the number of his children 
 unless he has to. Here is a practical illustration. 
 Some years ago I was in an Armenian village when 
 the Sultan's officers came to take the census. There 
 were about 300 persons in the village; the officer 
 wrote 200, because only a few names of boys were 
 
 given him out of the whole. The tax is based on 
 22 
 
338 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 the registration, and if you can keep off the registers 
 you can escape the tax. 
 
 The third is the gross incompetence, the corrup- 
 tion, and the drunkenness of the officers. The Turk- 
 ish officials, governors, mayors, clerks, generals, sol- 
 diers, all drink any sort of liquor they can lay hands 
 on, and are drunk as often and as long as sober; they 
 are so ignorant that they cannot do their work decently 
 even when they are sober; and they are utterly venal, 
 without the least sense of official obligation. What 
 sort of a census is likely to be taken by these ignorant, 
 whiskey-swilling, venal barbarians ? One of these 
 officials, whom I know well, once came to a village 
 to take the census. The Armenians got him so drunk 
 that he barked like a dog, bribed him, and he put down 
 about half the number of the population. 
 
 How, then, do I know the correct number ? From 
 a knowledge of the districts, the numbers of villages, 
 and statistics resting on a better foundation than the 
 above. I do not pretend that the number is exact; 
 but it is near enough for practical purposes. 
 
 The Armenians in Turkey are divided into four 
 classes. The first comprises merchants and bankers. 
 The second is the professional class: physicians, pro- 
 fessors, teachers, and preachers. The third is that of 
 artisans: weavers, blacksmiths, copper, silver, and 
 gold smiths, tailors, shoemakers, etc. The finest 
 Oriental rugs are made by the Armenians, and there 
 are weavers of silk and cotton goods, and all kinds of 
 hand-made embroidery. There are no factories in 
 
THE ARMENIANS OF TO-DAY. 339 
 
 Armenia. The fourth class is that of farmers, a pure, 
 simple, industrious class, with beautiful farms, vine- 
 yards, and orchards, whose products I have described. 
 One-tenth of all the Armenians in Turkey are in 
 Constantinople. Many of them are poor, in the na- 
 ture of things; but the leading bankers, merchants, 
 and capitalists there are Armenians, surpassing even 
 the Greeks and Jews. I give a few representative 
 names: Gulbenkian, Essayian, Azarian, Mosditchian, 
 Manougian, Oonjian. The physicians in largest 
 practice are Armenians: Khorassanjian, Mateosian, 
 Dobrashian, Vartanian, etc. The Sultan's personal 
 treasurer is an Armenian, Portukalian Pasha. The 
 chief counselor in the foreign office in Constantino- 
 ple is an Armenian, Haroutiune Dadian Pasha. The 
 greatest lawyers are Armenians: Mosditchian, Tin- 
 guerian, etc. The chief photographers of the Sultan 
 are Armenians, Abdullah Brothers and Sebah, the 
 former considered one of the best photographic firms 
 in the world. The personal jeweler of the Sultan is 
 an Armenian, Mr. Chiboukjian. For all his hate of 
 the Armenians, he has to employ them, for no others 
 are competent or trustworthy. The best musicians are 
 Armenians: Chonkhajian Surenian, Doevletian, and 
 an Armenian young lady named ISTartoss, who often 
 plays the piano before the Sultan. The greatest ora- 
 tor in Constantinople is an Armenian and a professor 
 in Eobert College, Prof. H. Jejizian, to my thinking, 
 superior to either Beecher, "Wendell Phillips, or Eobert 
 Ingersoll, all of whom I have heard. Finally, the Ar- 
 
340 ARIi^IENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 menians, as a whole, form the best " society " in Con- 
 stantinople, and their modes of living, dress, houses, 
 and ways are precisely like those of Americans or 
 Europeans. These are Mavroyeni Bey's '^ Indians " ! 
 
 Smyrna is a city of 150,000 or more population. 
 About 80,000 are Greeks; you may call it a Greek 
 city. The Armenians there number about 8,000, or 
 one-tenth of the Greeks, but are ten times richer than 
 all the Greeks together. The principal buildings are 
 owned by Armenians; the business is in the hands of 
 the Armenians. The chief business men are well- 
 known in Europe. Mr. Balyivzian owns many steam- 
 ers which jDly on the Mediterranean. Mr. Spartalian is 
 another very rich and very benevolent man; he built 
 a magnificent hospital at Smyrna. In Samsoun, Marso- 
 van, Cesarea, Adana, Amassia, Tocat, Sivas, Har- 
 poot, Mesere, Malatia, Diarbekir, Arabkir, Oorf a, Ain- 
 tab, Marash, Tarsus, Angora, Erzeroun, Erzinghan, 
 Moosh, Bitlis, Baiburt, Trebizond, — in a word, every- 
 where it is the same. Go where you like in Turkey, 
 you find the Armenians at the top. 
 
 When I say they are the richest, I mean until 
 early in 1894 they were the richest. But now, in 
 many cities of Armenia proper, since the recent atroci- 
 ties, they have become the poorest. 
 
 Leading citizens, and the fathers of families, for 
 the reasons I have mentioned, were specially singled 
 out for vengeance. Their stores, banks, and houses 
 were plundered and then burnt, their money and 
 jewelry taken from them, and then they were mur- 
 
THE ARMENIANS OF TO-DAY. 841 
 
 dered wholesale. Now tlie Turks and the Kurds for 
 a time are rich with Armenian property; wearing the 
 gold watches of Armenian gentlemen, their women 
 wearing the jewelry of Armenian ladies. 
 
 IN RUSSIA. 
 
 The Armenians in Russia are the richest and the 
 ■ most cultivated of any in the world, and have great in- 
 fluence. Mr. Kasbarian, an Armenian, is considered 
 the richest even of them. The rich city of Tiflis is 
 practically an Armenian city. 
 
 There are about 50,000 regular Armenian sol- 
 diers in the Russian army, and some of its greatest 
 generals have always been Armenians. 
 
 If the Czar would permit this force and the capi- 
 talists to settle the Armenian question, they would do 
 it in a month, and make Armenia free. The Arme- 
 nians have so far been treated very kindly and have 
 prospered exceedingly in Russia, but I do not believe 
 it will last. In my opinion, the young Czar is only 
 waiting for his coronation to oppress the Armenians 
 as he has the Jews. Yet the Czar's ablest servants 
 and advisers have been Armenians. The body-guard 
 of Mcholas' grandfather Alexander was the Arme- 
 nian Count Loris MelikofF, universally known; three 
 times wounded by ISTihilists on account of his position. 
 During the last Turko-Russian war some of the gen- 
 erals who accomplished the most with the least sacri- 
 fice were Armenians: Der, Lucasoif, Lazareff, Meli- 
 koff. There are now no less than eighteen Arme- 
 nian generals in the Russian service. I will mention 
 
342 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 a part: General Sdepan Kishmishian, commander of 
 Caucasus; General Ilagop Alkhazian, General Alex- 
 ander Lalayian, General Demedr Der Asadoorian, 
 General Ishkhan Manuelian, General Alexander Gor- 
 ganian, General Ishkhan Gochaminassian, General 
 Khosros Touloukhanian, General Arakel Khantamir- 
 ian, General H. Dikranian. There are many other 
 prominent Armenian officers. 
 
 In Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other great cities 
 in Russia there are many Armenian professors in the 
 universities, mayors of cities, judges of courts, and 
 high civil officers. I will give a few of their names, 
 to show that I am not talking blindly: 
 
 Count Hovhannes Telyanian, minister of educa- 
 tion, etc. 
 
 Gamazian, minister of foreign affairs in Asia. 
 
 Muguerditch Emin, counselor of education. 
 
 !N^erses Nersessian, professor in Moscow in the 
 Royal University. 
 
 Dr. Shilantz, professor in the medical college at 
 Kharcof. 
 
 Boghos Gamparian, superintendent of the Royal 
 army of Riza. 
 
 Melikian, professor of natural sciences in the Uni- 
 versity at Odessa. 
 
 A. Madinian, mayor of Tiflis. 
 
 V. Keghamian, mayor of Erevan. 
 
 H. Moutaffian, mayor of Akheltzka. 
 
 Hundreds and thousands are high officers in dif- 
 
THE ARMENIANS OF TO-DAY. 343 
 
 ferent departments of the Russian government, but 
 there is no space to give a roll of them. 
 
 One, however, a personal friend, I must write a 
 few words of, namely. Professor John Ayvazovski, of 
 the council of the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine 
 Arts, a marine painter of the first rank. He is now 
 79, but looks scarcely 60, with beautiful large, bright 
 eves. He came to the World's Fair, where fifteen of 
 his pictures were exhibited in the Russian section ; and 
 he presented two other fine ones to the American peo- 
 ple in recognition of their help to the Russian famine 
 sufferers, — one showing the arrival in port of a 
 steamer with its cargo of grain, the other the advent of 
 a drosky at a village of starving people, with a man in 
 front waving an American flag. He visited and 
 painted an excellent picture of ]^iagara. He had 
 seven pictures at the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876. 
 His paintings are mostly in royal palaces: there are 
 120 in that of the Russian imperial family, and 34 in 
 the Sultan's. His own gallery, at Theodosia, Russia, 
 has 84. He has received many prizes from exposi- 
 tions. He is also a great scholar and a good Chris- 
 tian. His brother, who lately died, was one of the 
 greatest bishops of the Armenian church. 
 
 There is a very interesting story about Professor 
 Ayvazovski 's boyhood which I will give here: 
 
 His parents were Armenian peasants, living in a 
 village not far from Moscow. One day Mcholas I 
 was passing by the hamlet on horseback, and dropped 
 his whip. The Emperor beckoned to young Ayvaz- 
 
344 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 ovski, and told him to pick it up. The boy approached 
 boldly and asked, '^ Who are you ? " Nicholas re- 
 plied, " I am the Emperor." The boy rejoined, " If 
 you cannot take care of your whip, how can you take 
 care of you.r subjects ? " The Emperor was pleased 
 at this remark, and ordered him to be educated at his 
 own expense, and in any profession he chose. He 
 took to the brush, and is the pride of his nation. 
 
 IN PERSIA, INDIA, ETC. 
 
 The Armenians of Persia are great merchants, 
 and high civil officers of the Shah. I name only a 
 few: 
 
 Chahanguir Khan is minister of arts and superin- 
 tendent of the arsenal. 
 
 ]^irza Melkoum Khan was the former ambassador 
 of the Shah at London; a man of great wealth and 
 learning, and an able diplomat. He retired on ac- 
 count of age, and lives in London. 
 
 E^azar Agha was ambassador of the Shah at Paris. 
 
 General Sharl Bezirganian is the general superin- 
 tendent of the telegraph service in Persia. 
 
 In India and Burmah there are great Armenian 
 merchants, who are millionaires, and respected by the 
 governments and the peoples. 
 
 In Egypt, though few in number, they are the 
 ruling element. E^ubar Pasha was the prime minister 
 of the Egyptian government until a few weeks ago; 
 one of the richest men in Egypt, and the greatest 
 statesman in Africa. He speaks several languages, 
 and spends his summers in France, owning property in 
 
THE ARMENIANS OF TO-DAY. 345 
 
 Paris. Dikran Pasha is another rich and very gifted 
 Armenian, and Boghos Pasha another man of power. 
 
 IN EUROPE. 
 
 There are very rich merchants among the Ar- 
 menians at Vienna, Paris, Marseilles, London, and 
 Manchester. There is a strong Armenian colony at 
 Manchester. All of them are merchants, and 
 some of them millionaires. Almost the whole clothing 
 trade between England and Turkey is in their hands. 
 They have a beautiful Armenian church there, and 
 always a learned Armenian bishop; I speak from 
 knowledge and observation. They are much respected 
 by the English. Some of the Armenian gentlemen 
 are married to English ladies of good family, and 
 their domestic life is very happy. Prince Loosinian, 
 an Armenian, a very great scholar, and much respected 
 by the French, lives in Paris; he is descended from 
 the last Armenian dynasty. His brother Khoren 
 Nar-Bey Loosinian was one of the foremost Armenian 
 bishops ; the Sultan of course hated him, and it is said 
 had him poisoned while imprisoned in Constantinople. 
 
 The Armenian scholars in Europe are well-known, 
 and on a level with the best of any country. There 
 is not an institution of learning in Europe where they 
 are not to be found, either as students or professors; 
 and the prizes and medals they win are many. 
 
 There are two great centers in Europe for the 
 Armenian scholars and authors :* one at Vienna and 
 the other at Venice. They have colleges and printing 
 presses in these places; and they write, translate, and 
 
346 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 publish themselves in nearly all languages all sorts 
 of valuable books. So the Armenian people are well 
 supplied with the best modern books. But it must 
 be remembered that these valuable books are forbidden 
 by the Sultan to go into Turkish Armenia; he wants 
 the people kept ignorant. Some of their great schol- 
 ars came home from Europe to preach and teach in 
 Armenia, to elevate their nation ; but some were killed 
 and some banished during the recent atrocities. 
 
 IN AMERICA. 
 
 The Armenians are a new people in America. 
 Seventeen years ago, when the writer first came to 
 this country, there were not more than a hundred in 
 the United States; since then about 10,000 have come, 
 most of them within ten years. The first ones came 
 about forty-five years ago, among them Mr. Minasian 
 and Mr. Sahagian, — both poor young men, now both 
 rich. Mr. Minasian lives at Brooklyn; Mr. Sahagian 
 at Yonkers, N. Y. Those who have come lately are 
 mostly the poorer class; they fled from the " order " of 
 the Sultan, and not being allowed to leave Turkey, 
 bribed the police and ran away. Not knowing the 
 English language, they work in factories in various 
 States. There are some well-to-do merchants, how- 
 ever, doing business in 'New York, Boston, and else- 
 where, handling Oriental rugs, dry-goods, etc. Some 
 of the New York names are Gulbenkian, Topakian, 
 Tavshandjian, Yard^mian, Chaderdjian, Telfeyian, 
 Xostikian. In Boston are Ateshian, Bogigian, etc. 
 Mr. Kebabian is in !N'ew Haven; Mr. Enfiyedjian in 
 
THE ARMENIANS OF TO-DAY. 347 
 
 Denver. There are many others also in other large 
 cities. 
 
 Besides merchants, there are many professional 
 men among them, about a dozen physicians in 'Ne\Y 
 York city alone: Dr. Dadirian, Dr. Gabrielian, Dr. 
 Ayvazian, Dr. Apkarian, Dr. Altarian, Dr. Koutoo- 
 jian. Some of them are engravers and photographers. 
 In 'New York city there are Ilagopian, Kasparian, 
 Matigian, and others, very skillful engravers. In 
 Boston there is the New England Engraving Co., 
 who are Armenians; the manager is Mr. G. Papazian. 
 
 There are about half a dozen Armenians who are 
 pastors of American churches in different states. 
 About a dozen are special lecturers on the Armenian 
 atrocities: Mr. H. Kiretchjian, the secretary of the 
 American Belief Association, Mr. Samuelian, Bev. 
 A. Bulgurgian, Bev. S. Deviryian, Mr. S. Yenovkian, 
 etc. 
 
 There are hundreds of Armenian students dis- 
 tributed among nearly all the universities, colleges, 
 and theological seminaries in America, and most of 
 them are of a superior sort. The greatest physicians 
 in Turkey are Armenians, who were graduated from 
 different medical colleges in this country. Some of 
 the leading pastors and professors in Armenia, who 
 were banished and killed during the recent atrocities, 
 were graduated in this country. 
 
 Of the factory hands mentioned, there are about 
 1,000 in Worcester, Mass.; about 800 in ^N'ew York 
 and Brooklyn; about 400 in Boston, and the remainder 
 
348 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 are scattered everywhere from ^ew York to Califor- 
 nia, from Maine to Florida. 
 
 A number of Armenian young men have married 
 American women; I believe ninety per cent, are happy. 
 After forty or fifty years, there will be a large class 
 of American citizens of Armenian blood, and many 
 millionaires among them. They are gifted in busi- 
 ness, and they are a sober, honest, and faithful people. 
 I do not think that there is a single criminal among 
 the 10,000 Armenians in this country. 
 
 Some of the Armenian daily and weekly news- 
 papers are as follows: 
 
 In Constantinople: Arevelk, Avedaper, Puragn, 
 Dyaghig, Hayrenik, Masis, Pounch. 
 
 In Smyrna: Arevlian Mamoul. 
 
 In Etchmiazin: Ararat. 
 
 In Tiilis: Aghpour, Artzakank, Mishag, Murj, 
 ^or-Tar, Darak. 
 
 In Venice: Pazmaveb. 
 
 In Vienna: Hantes Arnsoria. 
 
 In Marseilles: Armenia. 
 
 In London: UArmenic. 
 
 In New York: Haik. 
 
 Wherever the Armenians go they carry with them- 
 selves the church, the school, and the press. 
 
 THE ARMENIAN RELIEF ASSOCIATION. 
 
 This association is putting forth every effort to 
 alleviate the sufferings of needy Armenians wherever 
 they may be found ; their work has already resulted in 
 untold blessings and it deserves the hearty support and 
 
THE ARMENIANS OF TO-DAY. 349 
 
 contributions of the benevolent public. The officers 
 of the association are the following well-known Aix_eri- 
 can and Armenian gentlemen: 
 
 Right Rev. Bishop H. Y. Satterlee, D.D., presi- 
 dent. 
 
 Hon. Levi P. Morton, first vice-president. 
 
 Right Rev. Bishop Potter, D.D., second vice-pres- 
 ident. 
 
 Charles H. Stout, Esq., treasurer. 
 
 J. Bleeker Miller, Esq., chairman executive com- 
 mittee. 
 
 Nicholas R. Mersereau, Esq., secretary. 
 
 Herant M. Kiretchjian, general secretary. 
 
 Rev. J. B. Haygooni, A.M., organizing secretary. 
 
 Mr. H. K. Samuelian, agent. 
 
 The headquarters of the association is in ISTew 
 York. 
 
IX. 
 
 THE FUTUKE OF AKMEE^IA AND THE 
 BATTLE OF AEMAGEDDOK 
 
 I am going to predict tlie future of Armenia. Not 
 in tlie usual sense of guessing at it, but in tlie literal 
 sense of foretelling the truth. I am not a prophet of 
 God, yet my prediction is based on facts, and its ac- 
 curacy should be given some credit from the way my 
 predictions two or three years ago about the recent 
 atrocities that have already taken place, have come 
 true to the letter. At that time no American or Euro- 
 pean could be made to believe that such horrors would 
 be perpetrated; but I said they would be, and they 
 were. And even now the Western peoples are nearly 
 as blind as ever; they cannot see the future of Arme- 
 nia even with all the facts before them. Many have 
 lost hope in it altogether; they think Turkey will exist 
 forever, and exterminate the last of the Armenians. 
 Doubtless I should in their placcj but I was born in 
 Turkey and know the situation. 
 
 This, then, is the truth as I forecast it: — 
 
 Till the end of next year the Armenians will 
 
 suffer more than ever before. Perhaps a million will 
 
 be massacred yet, not only in Turkey, but in Russia. 
 
 (350) 
 
THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 351 
 
 The Jews, also, in great numbers, and not only tlie 
 Jews and the Armenians, but the Americans and 
 Englishmen too. The key rests in the character of the 
 present Czar. Nicholas II is not like his father or 
 grandfather, a strong man. I will not discuss the 
 moral character of the two Alexanders, but I allow 
 their powerful intellects and strong wills. They 
 favored the Armenians. But the present Czar has no 
 strength of character at all ; he is weak both in intellect 
 and morals. The Sultan is called the sick man of 
 Turkey, but the Czar is the sick man of Russia. His 
 short-sightedness in upholding Turkey is one proof. 
 Up to the time of the coronation next May you will 
 see no more massacres, for the Czar has ordered the 
 Sultan to hold his hand, that there may be a peaceful 
 ceremony, not clouded with horrors ; that over, he will 
 not only give the Sultan leave to unchain his dogs, 
 but he will unchain his own. The atrocities in Turk- 
 ish Armenia will be redoubled, and the Czar him- 
 self inflict on the Armenians all that has been in- 
 flicted on the Jews. Even this is not all : The Czar 
 will instruct the Sultan to get rid of all American mis- 
 sionaries, either banishing them as breeders of sedition, 
 or, if they refuse to go, requiring the United States 
 government to order them back. Probably the govern- 
 ment will obey. Probably, also, the missionaries will 
 not obey the government; they will stay where they 
 are. Then the Sultan will say he is not responsible for 
 their lives, and will issue secret orders to kill them, 
 which will be carried out. Further, the Czar will 
 
352 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 begin a fresh persecution of the Jews, and order the 
 Sultan to follow suit on the Jews in Turkey, which 
 will be done ; no fear of the Sultan's refusing an order 
 to butcher anj^body. Still more, the Czar will com- 
 mand him in secret to banish the English missionaries 
 from Turkey; the Sultan will request the English 
 government to call them back, and there is little doubt 
 that Lord Salisbury will comply; but they, like the 
 Americans, will refuse to go. Then they will be mur- 
 dered by secret orders from the Sultan, who will say he 
 is not responsible for it. These massacres will continue 
 for two years more. The victims will cry aloud, the 
 Americans and English will have greater mass-meet- 
 ings, but the governments of both will do nothing. And 
 Germany, Austria, and Italy will look calmly on; if 
 they act it will be with the Czar, and not against him. 
 Meantime both in Europe and America the war pre- 
 parations will continue with greater zeal and energy, 
 until the cup is full, until the crisis comes; then the 
 noble blood of the Anglo-Saxon race will begin to 
 boil, and the English and American people at once will 
 be aroused like one man, and the governments will 
 have to yield. The wrathful Jews will contribute 
 Jewish capital for the war expenses ; the wrathful Ar- 
 menians throughout the world will give both money 
 and soldiers to the governments fighting their battles. 
 And a fierce battle will be fought between Russia, 
 Turkey, and Erance on one side; America, England, 
 the Jews, and the Armenians on the other. The 
 former alliance will be beaten: the Czar's Greek 
 
THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 853 
 
 Church bigotry, the Sultan's Mohammedan fanati- 
 cism, and France's infidelity together will be crushed; 
 Russia will go to pieces, Turkey will go pieces, France 
 will go to pieces; Armenia will be free, Judea will be 
 free. The scattered Armenians will return to Arme- 
 nia, the scattered 3ews will return to Judea. Both 
 the Armenians and the Jews will have their separate 
 governments; not kings, not princes, but a clean re- 
 publican form of government. Russia and Turkey 
 will be opened to the gospel work. Where now hun- 
 dreds of missionaries are going from England and Am- 
 erica to other lands, then thousands of them will go; 
 and Christian America and England will open their 
 hearts and purses together to send as many mission- 
 aries as they can to Russia, to Turkey, and to France. 
 They will hasten the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 They will prepare the way for the coming King, who 
 has the power both in heaven and on the earth. 
 
 What will become of Germany, Austria, and Italy, 
 who form the Triple xllliance ? That alliance will be 
 dissolved. The German Emperor is* trying hard to 
 maintain it, but he will fail. France will once in a 
 while threaten Germany with vengeance, but she 
 will never be able to carry it out, and there is no need 
 for it, because the German people during this cen- 
 tury will get rid of their Emperor. There will be a 
 great civil war in Germany, between the people and 
 the army. If the German emperor could do it, he} 
 would begin to crush the Socialists now. He will 
 
 order his soldiers to kill their brothers and fathers, 
 23 
 
354 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 but tliey will not, — they are not as foolish as the 
 Emperor; the only result will be the break-up of the 
 German Union, and the division of Germany into 
 small republican governments. Italy, Austria, and 
 Spain will all have the same fate: civil war, and 
 splitting into small republics. No czars, no emperors, 
 no princes, no lords will remain. Government will be 
 for the people, of the people, by the people. The 
 time has come; this century will purify the whol^ 
 world. But until it is purified, a great deal of fire 
 will burn, very great battles will be fought, until free- 
 dom and peace shall reign. And the Armenian blood, 
 now continually pouring like a river in Armenia, will 
 be the cause and the foundation of the coming freedom 
 of the world. For the present, the world is not free; 
 it is not civilized. It cannot be with such rulers. To 
 be free and happy, the people must be aroused, and get 
 rid of them. The United States must be the example 
 to the older nations ; they must embrace Washington's 
 principles. 
 
 It is true that England and America will never 
 go regularly to work to give freedom to Judea and 
 Armenia, nor with that intention. Their immediate 
 motive will be to punish Russia and Turkey for the 
 murder of the missionaries, and after the victory is 
 won, by the help of Jewish and Armenian purses and 
 swords, the Armenians and Jews will be rewarded by 
 giving them their original homes and mother-lands. 
 
 This will be laughed at by many, perhaps most, as 
 a romantic and pleasant dream. They will say it can 
 
THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 355 
 
 never be accomplislied during this century; perhaps 
 in the future, after a century or two, but not now. I 
 am used to this incredulity; my predictions are never 
 believed at the time: but after they come true they 
 are. This century is not like the other centuries; a 
 day in this century is equal to a year of those which 
 have passed away. We may expect from a year of 
 it as much as from a centurv in the ancient times. 
 This world is a wonderful world now, and will be more 
 wonderful hereafter. The future of the world is 
 bright, and the world will be brighter and happier. 
 
 Why do I keep repeating ^^ two years " ? Why 
 do I not say one year or three years, or a few years % 
 I have reasons for it: one is the political situation in 
 Europe, and the other is the Bible prophecy in the 
 Book of Revelation. 
 
 THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN EUROPE. 
 The Europeans have already made great prepara- 
 tions for battle. Every one of them preaches peace 
 and prepares for war; and none of them have finished 
 their preparations yet, — if they had, they would be 
 in the thick of it by this time. Each of them declares 
 that its preparations will be finished about the end 
 of 1897. Russia is building war-ships, England is 
 building war-ships, France is building war-ships, and 
 all will be finished about the end of 1897. All pre- 
 parations converge on the end of 1897. When all 
 are ready, they will begin. When newspapers write 
 about an immediate European war, I do not believe it. 
 There will be no European war for two years; but 
 
356 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 after that there is no escape from it, — they have to 
 fight, and will fight. The war-ships will be ready, 
 the cannon wdll be ready, the guns will be ready, the 
 ammunition will be ready, the soldiers will be ready. 
 
 The cunning Sultan know^s all this, and is in a 
 hurry to exterminate the Armenians, so that when 
 they start in earnest with guns to reform Armenia, 
 he can say there is no Armenia or Armenians to re- 
 form. But that makes no difference for the European 
 powers: Turkey is doomed, and the Turkish Empire 
 will come to an end forever within this century. 
 There will never be any more Turkish Empire or Mo- 
 hammedan government; all the Mohammedan powers 
 w^ill be under Christian rule. 
 
 The second reason is my belief in the Bible prophe- 
 cies. The close resemblance of the Jews and Arme- 
 nians will be observed by the reader: both the 
 chosen people of God. The children of Israel 
 were the chosen people before Christ, and as the Arme- 
 nians became the first Christian nation after Christ, 
 they became the chosen people after Christ. And 
 these chosen people have suffered more than any other 
 nations on the globe ; they have had more martyrs than 
 any other nation, and have been carried into captivity, 
 and finally scattered throughout the world. The 
 Bible lands are Palestine and Armenia, where the first 
 man, Adam, was created, and where Christ was born 
 and was crucified; and so these lands after Christ, be- 
 coming the first Christian lands, became the Temple 
 of God, 
 
THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 857 
 
 We have a prophecy in the eleventh chapter of 
 Eevelation that the court of the Temple will be given 
 unto the Gentiles, and the Holy City shall they tread 
 under foot forty and two months; " and I will give 
 power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophecy 
 a thousand two hundred and three score days, clothed 
 in sackcloth." (Rev. xi, 2-3.) 
 
 Forty and two months and a thousand two hundred 
 and three score days are just the same thing. Each 
 day in the Bible prophecy is one year. According to 
 this interpretation, which I consider correct, the Holy 
 City will be trampled by the Gentiles one thousand, 
 two hundred and sixty years, ^ow the question is this, 
 AVhere is the Holy City, and who are the Gentiles who 
 will trample the Holy City ? First, the Holy City is 
 both literally the Holy City before Christ, and spirit- 
 ually the Holy City after Christ. 
 
 Literally, the Holy City is Jerusalem, where the 
 Temple of God was; this is very clear. Spiritually, 
 the Holy City is Christianity; wherever there are 
 Christians, there is the Holy City. But this is very 
 general, and takes the whole world after it is Chris- 
 tian. But before we come to that general Holy City, 
 we find in the third verse of the same chapter the fol- 
 lowing words : "I will give power unto my two wit- 
 nesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand, two hun- 
 dred and three score days, clothed in sackcloth." So 
 from these statements we find that two especial wit- 
 nesses in that Holy City, clothed in sackcloth, will tes- 
 tify. Who are these two witnesses ? My interpreta- 
 
358 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 tion is that tliej are tlie two chosen peoples of God and 
 Christ. And the two chosen peoples are the Jews 
 and the Armenians. The Jews were the chosen peo- 
 ple before Christ, and the Armenians became the 
 chosen people after Christ, as King Abgarus, the Ar- 
 menian king, believed in Christ before Christ was 
 crucified, and afterwards, in the time of Gregory the 
 Illuminator, the whole Armenian nation became a 
 Christian nation, in 310 A. D. Before Palestine was 
 considered a holy country, Armenia was considered a 
 holy land, because the first man was created there, and 
 Xoah's ark rested on Mount Ararat. And as the Ar- 
 menians became the first Christian nation on the globe, 
 Palestine and Armenia were the holy countries or the 
 Holy City. Although this is so, after all the literal 
 Holy City, Jerusalem, remains a holy city; and she will 
 be after Christ, under the rule of Gentiles one thou- 
 sand two hundred and sixty years, while the two wit- 
 nesses will testify there under sackcloth for one thou- 
 sand two hundred and sixtv vears. 
 
 ^ow the question is this, How long is it since the 
 city of Jerusalem was captured by the Gentiles, or 
 more correctly by the ^' beast that ascendeth out of 
 the bottomless pit " (Rev. ii. T), which is the Moham- 
 medan power ? The Mohammedan power in dif- 
 ferent places in Revelation is called the Beast, the 
 Dragon, the Whore or Harlot, and the False Prophet, 
 and it is the Gentile kingdom after Christ. And the 
 time which is given to the Mohammedan power to 
 rule, to destroy, and to kill the Jews and the Chris- 
 
THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 359 
 
 tians in Jerusalem or in the Bible lands, is only one 
 thousand two hundred and sixty years. Since the 
 city of Jerusalem was captured by the Mohammedans 
 is 1258 years, and when this present year and the next 
 come to an end in 1897, the Mohammedan power will 
 also come to an end, and the city of Jerusalem will be 
 restored to the Jews, and Armenia to the Armenians. 
 
 Towards the end of the Mohammedan power, Mo- 
 hammedans wdll begin to kill both the Jews and the 
 Armenians for three and a half years (see Rev. xi, 7, 
 8, 9). ^ow, for a year and a half the Mohammedans 
 have been killing the Christians, — which the author 
 predicted two or three years ago; and they will kill 
 two years more. " And the sixth Angel poured out 
 his vial upon the Great River Euphrates and the water 
 thereof was dried up." (See Rev. xvi, 12.) That 
 means that the people on the shores of the Euphrates 
 were killed, namely the Armenians. 
 
 I am not writing a commentary on Revelation, 
 but simply bringing in a few passages to enlighten the 
 mind of the reader about the future of Armenia and 
 the battle of Armageddon. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 
 
 (See Rev. xvi, 13-16.) 
 The battle of Armageddon is the final and the 
 greatest battle. All the nations will take part in it; 
 but the leaders in the battle will be the ones I have 
 said, and the other will be their followers on the one 
 side or the other. And this battle will settle all the 
 questions which are not settled now. The great East- 
 
360 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 ern question will be settled, the great question between 
 capital and labor will be settled, all the emperors and 
 czars, kings, and princes will come down from their 
 thrones, and permanent international arbitration will 
 be established. The questions which are asked now 
 will never be asked: What do the emperors say ? 
 What do the czars say ? What do the Sultans say ? 
 Men will ask then, What do the people say ? What is 
 the wish of the people ? 
 
 Then the question comes, where is Armageddon ? 
 Armageddon is Armenia. Of course this is entirely 
 a new interpretation to European and American schol- 
 ars; no one has ever been certain where Armageddon 
 is, but it is generally thought to be somewhere near 
 Jerusalem, a little hill called Mount Megiddo. In the 
 time of Judges, '' The kings came and fought, then 
 fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters 
 of Megiddo." (Judges v, 19.) But as a native of the 
 Bible lands, and as a native minister, I am positive 
 about it. The first question is. What does Armaged- 
 don mean ? It means the High Lands. Is there any 
 higher land in the Bible lands than Armenia ? The 
 main land is from 4,000 to Y,000 feet above the level 
 of the sea, and Mount Ararat is about 18,000 feet 
 high. Another question is. What does Armenia 
 mean ? It means precisely the high lands, as Ar- 
 mageddon does.* Armenia took her name from King 
 Aram or Armenag; both mean high lands, or the 
 possessors of high lands; and Armenia also means the 
 high lands. 
 
THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 361 
 
 Again, what does Ararat mean, which is just in 
 the center of Armenia proper ? It means the holy or 
 high land. Now bring all together, Armageddon, 
 Armenia, Ararat, all mean just the same: high lands. 
 Not only high lands, but holy high lands. Long be- 
 fore Palestine was called a holy land, Armenia had 
 the name of Holy land, and the Armenians were called 
 the Highlanders. 
 
 In a word, Armageddon is the combination of 
 three different words, Armenia - Garden - Eden : Arm- 
 ageddon. 
 
 So the final battle will be fought in Armenia. The 
 nation with the greatest part will have the greatest 
 future. As man fell from grace in Armenia, man 
 will be restored to peace and holiness in Armenia. 
 And before that peace, holiness, and restoration come, 
 the greatest battle will be fought in Armenia. After 
 the fall of man, disgrace and curse went forth from 
 Armenia; so prosperity and blessings will come forth 
 from Armenia. As the first battle in the world was 
 fought in Armenia, between Cain and Abel, and the 
 other battles followed, so the last battle will be fought 
 in Armenia, and the universal peace will come out of 
 it. As the first martyrdom in the world was in Arme- 
 nia, so the last and greatest martyrdom will be in Ar- 
 menia. And from the blood of Armenian martyrs 
 everlasting happiness will follow to all nations. And 
 the kingdom of Christ will be established throughout 
 the world. 
 
X. 
 
 POEMS O^ THE AKMEOTA^ QUESTION". 
 
 [From the New York Independent, by special permission.] 
 LORD SALISBURY. 
 
 By the Rev. T. S. Perky. 
 
 **0h! for a year, a month, a day of Oliver Cromwell." — The 
 Independent. 
 
 " What Lord Salisbury seems to lack is a little Cromwellian 
 courage." — A Speaker in City Temple, London. 
 
 Oh! for an hour of Cromwell, 
 
 For a leader brave and grand 
 To guide the wrath, and point the path, 
 
 Of a mighty Christian land ! 
 To heed the cry of innocent blood, 
 
 To blush for the world's disgrace, 
 With hand to deal a blow of steel 
 
 In the murderous Moslem's face ! 
 
 Alas ! for a leader heedless 
 
 While massacred villages flame, 
 Unmoved by shrieks of maidenhood 
 
 At wrong too foul for name ! 
 Strong to throttle the feeble, 
 
 Feeble to beard the strong, 
 With eye o'er-meek, and blanching cheek,- 
 
 How long, O Lord, how long ? 
 
 (362) 
 
POEMS ON THE ARMENIAN QUESTION. 363 
 
 3. 
 
 And women cover their faces, 
 
 And men are fain to tiiss. 
 Cromwell's head upon Temple Bar 
 
 Were a leader better than this ! 
 And heaven grows black with horror, 
 
 And earth grows red with wrong, 
 And martyrs cry from earth and sky, 
 
 How long, O Lord, how long ? 
 Orange Park, Florida, 
 
 DEUS VULT. 
 
 By Allen Eastman Cross. 
 
 '* It is time that one general shout of execration — not of men, 
 hut of deeds — one general shout of execration, directed against deeds 
 of icickedness, should rise from outraged humanity.'' — Gladstone's 
 Armenian address at Chester. 
 
 No tomb of death shall be our guest 
 Wherein the Lord of Life may rest. 
 
 No empty sepulcher of stone 
 
 Across the world makes bitter moan, 
 
 But Christian hearts that break and bleed 
 For our avenging pity plead. 
 
 O brothers, for our brothers' sake 
 Let the crusading spirit wake ! 
 
 O Christian England, 'tis the Christ 
 By Moslem hands is sacrificed ! 
 
 Away, away with hollow words. 
 
 Now sheath our speech, unsheath our sword ! 
 
 God wills: The guns of Christendom 
 Proclaim the tyrant's doom has come ! 
 Manchester, N. H. 
 
364 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 TWO SONNETS. : 
 
 By Henry Van Dyke. 
 I. 
 
 The Turk's Way. 
 
 *' S'and back, ye messengers of mercy ! Stand 
 
 Far off, for I will save my troubled folk 
 
 In my own way." So the false Sultan spoke; 
 And Europe, barkening to bis base command. 
 Stood still to see him heal his wounded land. 
 
 Through blinding snows of winter and through 
 smoke 
 
 Of burning towns she saw him deal the stroke 
 Of cruel mercy that his hate had planned. 
 
 Unto the prisoners and the sick he gave 
 New tortures, horrible, without a name; 
 
 Unto the thirsty, blood to drink; a sword 
 Unto the hungry; with a robe of shame 
 
 He clad the naked, making life abhorred. 
 He saved by slaughter, but denied a grave. 
 
 II. 
 America's Way. 
 
 But thou, my country, tho' no fault be thine 
 
 For that red horror far across the sea; 
 
 Tho' not a tortured wretch can point to thee, 
 And curse thee for the selfishness supine 
 Of those great powers who cowardly combine 
 
 To shield the Turk in his iniquity; 
 
 Yet, since thy hand is innocent and free, 
 Rise, thou, and show the world the way divine. 
 Thou canst not break the oppressor's iron rod. 
 
 But thou canst minister to the oppressed; 
 Thou canst not loose the captive's heavy chain. 
 But thou canst bind his wounds and soothe his pain. 
 
 Armenia calls thee, Empire of the West, 
 To play the Good Samaritan for God. 
 New York City. 
 
POEMS ON THE ARMENIAN QUESTION. 365 
 
 TO THOSE WHO DIED FOR THEIR FAITH. 
 
 Armenia, 1894 to 189— f 
 By Mrs. Merrill E. Gates. 
 " These loved their lives not, to the death ! " 
 But we at ease to-day, who claim 
 Allegiance to the One great Name, 
 Could we as nobly die for Faith ? 
 
 We challenge not the crucial test ! 
 Self cannot prove to self its power 
 If e'er should come that testing hour 
 
 God give us grace to choose the Best ! 
 
 But these have overcome ! Their Lord 
 In bitter death have not denied ! 
 Have chosen still the Crucified 
 
 In face of bayonet and sword ! 
 
 Our age heroic looms ! Our eyes 
 Behold white martyr brows ! Still hears 
 Our sin-gray world with unthrilled ears 
 
 Once more the martyr-chorus rise ! 
 
 Come Thou to succor the great need ! 
 Thy judgment shall not long delay ! 
 God doeth his strange work to-day ! 
 The Judge is at the door ! Take heed ! 
 Amherst, Mass. 
 
 ARMENIA. 
 
 By Willimina L. Armstrong. 
 
 Out of storms and peace light, out of confusing things. 
 Bound in mysterious fashion by the bindings of blood 
 and hate, 
 
 Lo, are the Nations assembled now 
 
 At the Twentieth Century Gate. 
 Leaning beside the portal: Close ! in the name of God ! 
 Over the Garden of Eden, in the evening of this our Day. 
 
 Over the breast of the Mountain old 
 
 Where the Ark of deliverance lay. 
 
366 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Leaning beside the portal: Hark to the clashing arms ! 
 
 Hark to the voice in the Garden, to the Nations of Earth 
 
 it calls, 
 
 "Bid! for the Woman is Christian blood; 
 
 And the sword and the bayonet falls ! " 
 
 Sold ! A Christian Woman ! Sold in the name of Christ! 
 
 Sold to her death in the Eden with its soil by her blood 
 
 made damp ! 
 
 Sold in the eve of our Mighty Age ! 
 
 With the light of our Age for a lamp ! 
 New York Oity. 
 
 ARMENIA'S BITTER CRY. 
 
 By Hetta Lord Hayes Ward. 
 I. 
 World, world, hear our prayer 
 Oh where is Russia, where ? 
 
 A fearful deed is done. 
 
 Its glare affronts the sun. 
 Smoke ! Flame ! Fire ! 
 Rouse thee, great Russian Sire ! 
 
 When Christian homes are ablaze, 
 
 Hast thou no voice to raise ? 
 Thy neighbor to thee has cried, 
 Pass not on the other side. 
 
 Look on our dire despair ! 
 
 Where art thou. Czar, oh, where ? 
 
 II. 
 
 Land of the sun and sea, 
 
 Wake, Rome and Italy ! 
 Our ancient Church in vain 
 Calls thee to break her chain. 
 
 Shame ! Shame ! Shame ! 
 
 Where sleeps thy early fame ? 
 To death our priests are led. 
 Their flocks lie slaughtered, dead. 
 
 Awake, good Pope of Rome ! 
 
 Our saints through blood go home; 
 Hear thou their dying plea. 
 Where, where is Italy ? 
 
Newark, N. J. 
 
 POEMS ON THE ARMENIAN QUESTION. 367 
 
 III. 
 Land of Fiaternite, 
 Brave France, turn not away ! 
 
 Shall blood thy lilies stain ? 
 
 Wilt bear the curse of Cain ? 
 Wake ! Wake ! Wake ! 
 For God and glory's sake ! 
 
 On a ghastly funeral pyre, 
 
 Brave men are burned with fire; 
 God calls to France, the free, 
 " Thy brother, where is he ? " 
 
 Lest God in wrath requite, 
 
 Awake, befriend the right ! 
 
 IV. 
 
 Where is good Frederick's son 
 When evil deeds are done ? 
 
 Shall prisons reek and rot, 
 
 His mother's blood speak not ? 
 Haste ! Haste ! Haste ! 
 Time runs too long to waste. 
 
 If halts the Kaiser dumb, 
 
 Let all the people come. 
 Your oath must sacred stand, 
 Treaties of Fatherland; 
 
 Victims of Turk and Kurd, 
 
 Rest on your plighted word. 
 
 v. 
 Your sisters' shame and blood 
 Cry out to England's God. 
 
 Slain on the church's floor. 
 
 Their blood flowed out the door. 
 Speak ! Speak ! Speak ! 
 The strong must help the weak. 
 
 Leave Turkish bonds unsold; 
 
 Betray not Christ for gold. 
 Let the Moslem dragon feel 
 Once more Saint George's heel. 
 
 England, awake, awake ! 
 
 World, hear, for Jesus' sake ! 
 
368 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 ARMENIA. 
 By Geo. W. Crofts. 
 
 Tune : " Maryland, My Maryland." 
 
 Where'er thy martyr bloocl has run 
 
 Armenia ! 
 Shed by the fierce Mohammedan, 
 
 Armenia ! 
 There nations gather in their grief — 
 There would they bring in swift relief — 
 Oh, may thy agony be brief, 
 
 Armenia ! 
 
 God's eye of pity glances down, 
 
 Armenia ! 
 He sees thy rudely broken crown, 
 
 Armenia ! 
 His heart is touched with all thy woes, 
 His mighty arm will interpose, 
 He'll save thee from thy cruel foes, 
 
 Armenia ! 
 
 All o'er thy verdant plains shall spread, 
 
 Armenia ! 
 The golden grain where thou hast bled, 
 
 Armenia ! 
 Thy harvest song shall yet arise 
 To him who rules in yonder skies. 
 Whose ear has heard thy bitter cries, 
 
 Armenia ! 
 
 America extends to thee, 
 
 Armenia ! 
 The cordial of her sympathy, 
 
 Armenia ! 
 And every soul in this free land 
 Would give to thee the helping hand. 
 And near thee in thy sorrow stand, 
 
 Armenia ! 
 
POEMS ON THE ARMENIAN QUESTION. 369 
 
 In this dark hour be brave and strong, 
 
 Armenia ! 
 The right shall triumph over wrong, 
 
 Armenia ! 
 'Twill not be long till thou shalt see 
 The glorious dawn of liberty, 
 When thou shalt be forever free, 
 
 Armenia ! 
 
 ARMENIAN HYMN. 
 By Alice Stone Blackwell. 
 
 [From the Armenian of Ners^s the Graceful ; born 1102, died 1172.] 
 
 O Dayspring, Sun of righteousness, shine forth with light 
 
 for me ! 
 Treasure of mercy, let my soul thy hidden riches see ! 
 
 Thou before whom the thoughts of men lie open in thy 
 
 sight, 
 Unto my soul, now dark and dim, grant thoughts that 
 
 shine with light ! 
 
 O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Almighty One in Three, 
 Care-taker of all creatures, have pity upon me ! 
 
 Awake, O Lord, awake to help, with grace and power 
 
 divine; 
 Awaken those who slumber now, like Heaven's host to 
 
 shine ! 
 
 O Lord and Saviour, life-giver, unto the dead give life, 
 And raise up those that have grown weak and stumbled 
 in the strife ! 
 
 O Skillful Pilot ! Lamp of light, that burneth bright 
 
 and clear ! 
 Strength and assurance grant to me, now hid away in 
 
 fear. 
 
 O Thou that makest old things new, renew me and adorn; 
 Rejoice we with salvation, Lord, for which I inly mourn. 
 Giver of good, unto my sins be thy forgiveness given ! 
 Lead Thy disciples. Heavenly King, unto the flocks of 
 Heaven. 
 24 
 
370 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 Defeat the evil busbandmau that soweth tares and weeds; 
 Wither aud kill in me the fruits of all his evil seeds ! 
 
 O Lord, grant water to my eyes, that they may shed 
 warm tears 
 
 To cleanse and wash away the sin that in my soul ap- 
 pears ! 
 
 On me, now hid in shadow deep, shine forth, O glory 
 
 bright ! 
 Sweet juice, quench thou my soul's keen thirst ! Show 
 
 me the path of light ! 
 
 Jesus, whose name is love, with love crush thou my 
 
 stony heart; 
 Bedew my spirit with thy blood, and bid my griefs depart ! 
 
 O thou that even in fancy art so sweet. Lord Jesus Christ, 
 Grant that with Thy reality my soul may be sufficed ! 
 
 When thou shalt come again to earth, and all thy glory 
 
 see. 
 Upon that dread and awful day, O Christ, remember me! 
 
 Thou that redeemest men from sin, O Saviour, I implore, 
 Redeem him who now praiseth Thee, to praise Thee ever- 
 more. 
 
 Dorchsster, Mass. 
 
 Miss Alice Stone Elackwell is a noble Boston 
 woman who is greatly interested in the Armenians. 
 She has written many articles and poems, and done 
 much toward arousing public sentiment throughout 
 the United States in behalf of the Armenians. 
 
 The author of this book esteems it a privilege to 
 offer his personal thanks, as well as those of his per- 
 secuted nation, to Miss Elackwell, by whose kind per- 
 mission the following poems from her book, " Ar- 
 menian Poems," are here reprinted. 
 
POEMS ON THE ARMENIAN QUESTION. 371 
 THE LAMENT OF MOTHER ARMENIA. 
 
 In alien lands they roam, my children dear; 
 Where shall I make appeal, with none to hear ? 
 Where shall I find them ? Far away from me 
 My sons serve others, thralls in slavery. 
 
 Chorus, 
 
 Oh, come, my children, back to me ! 
 Come home, your motherland to see ! 
 
 II. 
 Ages have passed, no news of them I hear; 
 Dead, dead are they, my sons that knew not fear. 
 I weep, the blood is frozen in my veins; 
 No one will cure my sorrows and my pains. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 ni. 
 
 My blood is failing and my heart outworn, 
 My face forever mournful and forlorn; 
 To my dark grave with grief 1 shall descend, 
 Longing to see my children to the end. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 IV. 
 
 O wandering shepherd, you whose mournful song 
 Rings through the valleys as. you pass along! 
 Come, let us both, with many a bitter tear, 
 Weep for the sad death of our children dear ! 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 v. 
 Crane of the fatherland, fly far away, 
 Fly out of sight, beyond the setting day; 
 My last sad greetings to my children bear. 
 For my life's hope has died intd despair ! 
 
 Chorus. 
 
372 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 LIBERTY. 
 
 Michael Ghazarian Naibandian was born in Kussian Armenia in 1830; graduated 
 at the University of St. Petersburg with the title of Professor ; was active as a 
 teacher, author, and journalist ; fell under suspicion for his political opinions, 
 and underwent a rigorous imprisonment of three years, after which he was exiled 
 to the province of Sarakov, and died there, in 1866, of lung disease contracted 
 in prison. It is forbidden in Russia to possess a picture of Nalbandian ; but 
 portraits of him, with his poem on "Liberty" printed around the margin, are 
 circulated secretly. 
 
 I. 
 
 When God, who is forever free, 
 
 Breathed life into my earthly frame, — l. 
 
 From that first day, by his free will m 
 
 When I a living soul became, — m 
 
 A babe upon my mother's breast, 
 
 Ere power of speech was given to me, 
 Even then I stretched my feeble arms ' 
 
 Forth to embrace thee, Liberty! ■. 
 
 i 
 II. f 
 
 Wrapped round with many swaddling bands, 
 
 All night I did not cease to weep, 
 And in the cradle, restless still. 
 
 My cries disturbed my mother's sleep. 
 " O mother ! " in my heart I prayed, 
 
 " Unbind my arms and leave me free ! " ; 
 
 And even from that hour I vowed 
 
 To love thee ever. Liberty ! 
 
 III. 
 When first my faltering tongue was freed, 
 
 And when my parents' hearts were stirred 
 With thrilling joy to hear their son 
 
 Pronounce his first clear-spoken woTd, 
 *' Papa, mamma," as children use, 
 
 W^ere not the names first said by me; 
 The first word on my childish lips 
 
 Was thy great name, O Liberty ! 
 
POEMS ON THE ARMENIAN QUESTION. 373 
 
 IV. 
 
 Liberty answered from on hig 
 
 The sovereign voice of Destiny: 
 " Wilt tliou enroll thyself henceforth 
 
 A soldier trne of Libertj^ V 
 The path is thorny all the way. 
 
 And many trials wait for thee; 
 Too strait and narrow is this world 
 
 For him who loveth Liberty. " 
 
 V. 
 
 " Freedom ! " I answered, " on my head 
 
 Let fire descend and thunder burst; 
 Let foes against my life conspire. 
 
 Let all who hate thee do their worst: 
 I will be true to thee till death; 
 
 Yea, even upon the gallows tree 
 The last breath of a death of shame 
 
 Shall shout thy name, O Liberty ! " 
 
 THE WANDERING ARMENIAN TO THE SWALLOW. 
 
 By C. A. ToTOCHiAN. 
 I. 
 O swallow, gentle swallow, 
 
 Thou lovely bird of spring ! 
 Say, whither art thou flying 
 So swift on gleaming wing ? 
 
 IT. 
 
 Fly to my birthplace. Ashdarag, 
 
 The spot I love the best; 
 Beneath my father's roof-tree, 
 
 O swallow, build thy nest. 
 
 ni. 
 
 There dwells afar my father, 
 A mournful man and gray. 
 
 Who for his only son's return 
 Waits vainly, dav by day. 
 
374 ARMENIA AND HER PEOPLE. 
 
 IV. 
 
 If thou shoiildst chance to see him, 
 Greet him with love from me; 
 
 Bid him sit down and mourn with tears 
 His son's sad destiny. 
 
 V. 
 
 In poverty and loneliness, 
 Tell him, my days are passed: 
 
 My life is only half a life. 
 My tears are falling fast. 
 
 VI. 
 
 To me, amid bright daylight, 
 The sun is dark at noon; 
 
 To my wet eyes at midnight 
 Sleep comes not, late or soon. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Tell him that, like a beauteous flower 
 
 Smit by a cruel doom. 
 Uprooted from my native soil, 
 
 I wither ere my bloom. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Fly on swift wing, dear swallow, 
 Across the quickening earth, 
 
 And seek in fair Armenia 
 The village of my birth. 
 
NOTICE. 
 
 The author of this book delivers lectures on the following 
 subjects : 
 
 Armenia, Armenians, and the recent Atrocities. 
 The Sultan of Turkey, Hamid the II. 
 American Missions in Turkey. 
 Social and Political Life in Turkey. 
 About 400 stereopticon views, as well as large maps, and 
 costumes are used to illustrate the various lectures, which are 
 highly instructive and entertaining, and never fail of interesting 
 the most critical audiences. 
 
 The lectures are delivered upon very reasonable terms. For 
 particulars address, Rev. GEO. H. FILIAN, 
 
 G(yr. Eastern Parkway and Cresent St., Brooklyn, N. T. 
 
 From the testimonials of prominent clergymen, authors, and 
 secretaries of Y. M. C. A.'s, the following few are selected. 
 
 From Dr. R. S. Storrs, President of the American Board 
 of Foreign flissions. 
 
 Your address to my congregation was admirable in its tone, and its entire 
 impression upon those who heard it. Your knowledge of the facts presented is, 
 of course, accurate and complete ; and your method of presenting the facts is 
 clear, impressive, and leaves the minds instructed and the hearts quickened. 
 
 From the Faculty of Chicago Theological Seminary. 
 
 This will introduce to you Rev. George H. Filian, a graduate of this Semi- 
 nary, a man of true character and devotion. He has been obliged to suspend 
 work for a lime in Turkey, owing to his faithfulness in preaching the truth, and 
 is recommended to the consideration of Christians throughout America. 
 
 By order of the Faculty, H. N. Scott, Secretary. 
 
 From Prof. G. B. Wilcox, D.D., Chicago Theological 
 
 Seminary. 
 
 Rev. G. H. Filian, a graduate of this Seminary in 1882, and since pastor of 
 Armenian Evangelical Church, Marsovan, Turkey, is lecturing on Turkish 
 missions and Turkish manners and customs. He is an exceptionally able speaker^ 
 and may with all confidence be introduced by any pastor to his congregation. 
 I speak from long and intimate acquaintance. G. B. Wilcox. 
 
 (375) 
 
From Rev. John H. Barrows, D.D., Pastor First 
 Presbyterian Church. 
 
 Rev. Geo. H. Filiau, of Syria, lectured on Constantinople to my people last 
 night, greatly interesting them. His illustrations are excellent, and he speaks 
 with great enthusiasm. The evening's entertainment was very wholesome, and 
 I cordially commend his worthy lecture. My people have heard him also with 
 pleasure on "Social Life in Turkey." 
 
 From the Department Secretary Y. fl. C. A. of Chicago, 
 
 Illinois. 
 
 Eev. Geo. H. Filian delivered before one of our meetings his interesting lecture 
 on " Missions in Turkey.'* I have never heard a speaker more interesting, and 
 that held the attention of the audience in a greater measure than Mr. Filian. He 
 is intelligent upon such a subject. He is versatile in expression, enthusiastic in 
 delivery, and certainly very devout in heart. Daniel Sloan. 
 
 From the Secretary in charge Central Building, Y. fl. C. A., 
 Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 Rev. Grco. H. Filian gave his stereopticon lecture on "Constantinople" be- 
 fore our young men last night, and I am pleased to say that it is a lecture of rare 
 interest and enjoyment. The views are beautiful and very instructive, as they 
 are rarely thrown upon a screen. Mr. Filian has the advantage of speaking 
 from actual experience, and his eloquent words, devoted spirit, and fund of 
 humor quickly win the attention and sympathy of any audience. 
 
 Arthur B. Wood. 
 
 From Rev. Henry Van Dyke, D.D., Pastor of the Brick 
 Church, New York. 
 
 Your lecture before our Young Men's Society on Monday was a decided suc- 
 cess. Every one was interested in what you had to say, and the pictures were 
 excellent. We shall be glad when the time comes to have you with us again. 
 
 From Rev. George fl. Stone, D.D., Hartford. 
 
 Mr. Filian is thoroughly intelligent on the whole Eastern question, and gives 
 a view of Armenia and its present trial which is exceedingly valuable. 
 
 From A. C. Dixon, D.D., Pastor Hanson Place Baptist 
 Church, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 Rev. George H. Filian has lectured twice in the Hanson Place Baptist church, 
 and it gives me pleasure to say that his lectures are interesting and instructive. 
 They stir the heart to work and pray for the relief of persecuted Armenia. 
 
 From Louis Albert Banks, D.D., Pastor of Hanson Place 
 n. E. Church, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 I take great pleasure in saying that the Rev. Geo. H. Filian, who has spoken 
 from the platform at Hanson Place M. E. church in behalf of the Armenian 
 Christians, and also lectured in our church on Constantinople, is a very eloquent 
 and earnest speaker, who will attract attention and arouse interest anywhere. 
 
 (376) O-iuAjS^ 
 
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