218

CAUSE OF ARMENIAN WOE

Part of an Ancient Madness- The Fanatics of the Green Flag.

Islam Wins Salvation by the Slaughter of Unbelivers-Cry of the Holy War.

Resemblance to the Frenzy of the Early Cursaders- The Inherited Feud-The Duplicity of the Sultan.

Nothing in contemporary history is more interesting than the "holy war" which the Turk is waging against the Armenians.

The apparent indifference of Europe does not indicate a deacy of humane feeling. It is merely a condition of that besotted commercialism in which not only Europe, but all Christendom, appears at present to be sunk. The truth is that maked under the term, "Higher politics," Is a profund apprehension which keeps every nation of Europe from drawing off its army from home territory, fearing the aggressions of rival power. Worse than this, Europe has lost its ability to fight for a sentiment. It can no longer die for its religion. It cannot summon sufficient conviction to pit itself aginast all Islam, drunk with religious passion. No flag which bears the Christian sign can inspire as does the green flutter of Moslem's rag Eurpose is too same, too selfish, too calm and scientific too commerical through and through to engage in any warfare which does not mean an accretion of national or private wealth It must fight for that which is palpable-that which affects bonds, notes, securities, investments. The cry of "The Holy Sepulcher" could once send Europeans to die on Paynim Plains to rot in Turkish dungeons or starve on straggling marches If it were shouted not it would mean not half so much as the doay's fluctuation in marker values Europe is commercial through and through

Not that America is different Not a bit If she knew how she was going to get the money back she would show her sympathy with those fierce patriots in the isle off Floridian shores today-and let Spain do her worst As for international law, that would go flimmering quick enough. International law is someting like the power of speech It is used to conceal our thoughts But this is a digression. To return to Armenia about which everyone knows all there is to be easily learned, geopgraphically, politically, etc. Over there is a condition which we of temperate zone and law abiding habit, in districts where piping peace pervades our droning days, find it hard to imagine. Towns laid in smoking ruins, men buried in shallow trenches in the blood stained clothes in which they were butchered, women dishonored and cruelly left live, childre honored and cruelly left to live, chidren disemboweled, the roads tracked by miserable refugees, honest men and made beggars, mothers made theives by hunger well, the words sound very trite. You can read them over in wards waged from heathen times till yesterday How can we who have not seen these sights guess what they mean? We who weep at one mimic death upon the stage, how shall we appreciate this tragedy of a while people? It is not to be done And what protest does Christendom make? Why, next to none Over here our local egotists bring out their rusty eloquence, polish it lovingly in presence of admiring beighbors, and send resolutions somewhere- no one knows just where-and that is all Meanwhile, the Rieks keep on with their butchering, just as Charlotte kept on spreading bread and butter

It is interesting to observe how the present madness of the Moslems resembles that the christian crusaders in the wars with Raymond of of Roulouse, Tancred Peter the Hermit and their associated As these men expected all sins to be forgiven then if they died upon the battlements of Jerusalem, so the believers in the korean expect all sins to be absolved and eternal salvation to the [as?ned] to him who slays the unbelieve in "holy war"

For what does the "perspicuous book" says?

"When ye encounter the unbelivers, strike off their heads, until ye have made a great slaughter among them, and bind them in bonds, and either give them a free dismission afterward or exact a ransom, intil the war shall have laid down his arms This shall ye do Verily if God pleased he could take vengeance on them, without your assistance, but the commandeth you to fight his batties, that he may prove the one of you by the other. And as to those who fight in defence of Gods true religion, God will not suffer their works to preish, he will guide them and dispose their hearts alright, and he will lead them into paradise, of which he hath told them O, true belivers if ye assist God by fighting for his religion, he weill assist you against your enemies, and will set your feet fast; but as for the infidels let them perish and their works shall God render vain This shall befall them because they have rejected with abhorrence that whic God hath revealed, wherefore their works shall be no svail Do they not ravel throught the carth, and see what hath been the end of those before them God utterly destroye the, and the casterphe awaiteth the unbelievers For this shall come to pastor that God is the pation of true believers and for that the infiedls have no protectors."

And what did Aliah say to his prphet in the step that came upon him O prohpet, sir up the faithful to what, if twenty of you perseves with constancy, they shall overcome 200 and if there be 100 of your they shall overcome 1000 of those who believe not And agian 'Fight therefore for the religion difficult save itself, hoewver, exact the faithful to war, perhaps God will restrain the courage of the ubelievers for God is strong than they and more able to punish Concerning those who are renegades from the religion of the true prophet, does the koran say

Take them and kill them wherever ye find them" and agian and agian

Take them and kill them wherever ye fund them: Such is the duty of the faithful And as for one reqired of those how obey, is there not a provision in Paradise namely, delicious fruits, and honor, frudens of pleasure where the faithful loan on couples opposite on anohter, and is not a cup carried round unto them filled from a limped fountain, for the dleight of those who drink, which neither oppresses the understanding nor [?] lying near, the virgins of paradise refraining their looks from beholding any save their spouses, and having large black eyes and skin the color of an ostrich egg when it hath been hidden form the dust by the tralling feathers with which the carefil bird hath covered them? Ah, what wonder them that the war camels runs swiftly to battle, even as the Batle of Bedr, making a panting noise as they go, striking fore from the stones by the dashing against them of their hurying hoofs? For doth not God knowall that is in mean a breasts, and on the day when those in the graves shall come forth, shall he not reward those who defend the flag ofthe prohet? There is no God but God"

Horrible, is it not, We couldn't care, we modern Christians, for anything like that We couldn't be so creduious We couldn't vare for a paradise purchased at such a sacrifice of self-respect But there was a time when it was different

When the passion for the holy sephulcher and the cave of the nativity was at its height men were envied, if they died fighting for Jurusalem and attached such sancity to all that had come in contact with the land where out Savior lived, that they believed the shirt which a pligrim wore on visitng the holy land, would carry him straight to heaven, if his corpse were wrapped in it, not mater what his sins What wonder then that they felts authorized to slay 10,000 of the heathen who had polluted the sacred city by their presence, or that they rode up streets glowing to their horses' knees bllod," or that the Christian knights, maddened with victory, seeing heaven's own sign in that event, dashed out the brains of infant heathens against the city walls, that they might not grow up to offend the Lord? Though Tancred, best of the Christian knights, might give his word of safety, yet all the prisoners of a capitulating city were hacked and hewn till men and women, babes and youths were one indistinguishiable mass of mutilated flesh Christ is the son of God And this was for his glory.

Disgusting, weary memories History passed them by with aversion, glad to remeber the best that sprung from those ineffectual wars, and to pass over these details Christendom has emerged, since then, from its excess of credulty. Certainly it has outgrown its frantic fanaticism. It takes its convivtions indifferently, regards the sifferings of fellow christians with [philosph??] calm is not convulsed by insults ot the cross, and, in fact, avails itself selfishly of the conveniences of Christians cilvilzation, without troubling itself much about the beliefs which lie at the root of Christian civilization Clara Barton, president of the United States branch of the International Red Cross society, had been the onl one to directly, unhesitatingly and uncompromisingly, offer assistance from abroad She had been rebuffed by the sultan. He is not willing that any of his subjects should be the recipients of charity collected at meetings where his administration has been willing that any of his subjects should be the recipients of charity collected at meetings where his administration has been villified, his religion despised and his [cru??ties] exposed At least, he doesn't put it quite that way, but that is what he means. We are all prone to think we have been slandered when the truth has been told about us In spite of the rebiff of the sultan Miss Barton will sail for Amenia Meanwhile comes this letter to an American citizen born in Armenia, living now at Cleveland, O

Your eldest brother, nag laser, after his house was plundered and learned, was killed Your second brother, Kinagos had his properly plundered house burned and he is near death a door Your younger brother, John, was killed and him woperly burned Their orphan children ate wan lering in the streets The families of your nearest relatives have been wiped out Your own children are wandering helpless in the streets For Gods sake, send us help

Over against this the sultan's fictive wrath appears like emptiest [bonbast]

"The sublime porte," he says, 'is mindful of the true inrests of its subjects, and distinguishing between the real state of tings and calmunies and wild exafferations of interested or fantical parties, will, as it had sone hitherto, under its own legitimate control alleviate the wants of all Turkish subjects living in certain provinces, irrespective of creed or race"

All of which reminds one how many resemblances there can be between words and soap bubbles

Well, thats the situation, as everybody knows, and it is certainly interesting. It must not be taken alone, as a detached incident It must be contemplated in the light of the last episode of a great inter-religious war, which, on both sides has been illuminated by heroism, defiled with treachery, made horrible with slaughter, mitigated by faith, and mocked with futile hopes

We, changing, have lifted with us the interpreation of our religion We could no longer slaugter babes for the honor of the blood red cross upon our banner. But we have grown selfish, too, and very indifferent, and would not discommode ourselves for anything but gain We believe in peace and plenty-especially plenty.

The Moslem, mad with fanaticism, secs in his crime the price he pays for salvation. And he, as keen for pelf as we, sees in the confiscated property of his murdered antagonist an earhly compensation for the revolting deeds his fevor urges him to the perfromance of

History is a terrible thing The pain of today in the diversion of tomorrow, and the next decade will see men reading of the Armenia massacre in the rages of some cuclipedia as calmly as we now read of the fall of Jerusalem, and the suicides of the pagans in the citadel.

Elia W. Peattie.