some dayB killed them.”
The discovery that the Armenians
had arms and were planning to use
them, enraged the Turks. “Every
day they increased the torment and,
not being satisfied, they decided to
drive out the people. Those impris
oned, like thieves, were bound two
and two and, bearing heavy burdens,
started on the road. This last degree
of suffering, hradly an animal could
endure.”
When the women refused to be
made Moslem, the Turks decided to
exile them. "After traveling two or
three days they began slowly, slowly,
to renew their evil ways. In the woods
thousands of brigands came upon us,
like evil men atack us; some of us
they killed, some they tied to trees
which they set on fire, and some they
killed like sheep. Little boys and
girls in the forests cried out ‘save us,’
but there was no one to hear their
voices. Many died so that blood was
flowing like a river.
"Sending us from Juruf we came to
The desert, where we knew no lan
guage and had no work. At last grad
ually becoming used to it, we worked
to get bread. After terrible sickness
and hunger, only I remained of our
family of eight. After remaining three
or four years, we heard that Jeru
salem had passed into the hands of
Christians. At night, fleeing without
food, we came to Jerusalem. Then en
tering the benevolent orphanage, our
lives were saved from this suffering.
Long live pur Armenian race for sav
ing us and Mrs. Arsharoune Victorian,
for her motherly love to us. We show
our thanks to all Armenian helpers,
' and so we close.”—From Mezik H.
Arboyan.
A girl, Vilayet Adana, 13 years old,
tells how they reached Es-Salt, and
found there great famine.
“There was great famine in Salt
and more than half of the Armenians
died of hunger. We would pass our
• days eating grass and would go and
work on the roads to find means for
bread. But the Turks would take our
...
earnings. When they saw that the
Armenians could turn to whichever
side they were drawn they wished to
make us Turks. So they changed our
names by force and made us Turks.
"Many of us would carry wood on
our backs and sell it to get bread, but
they would cut the price and give a
paper worth five ghouroush which
would really be five metallic. Then
they would kidnap the girls who went
for wood, and so we were tired of this
wood business. We were vexed and
would say, 'O God, take away our life
that we may be freed also.’ When
British aeroplanes would fly over Salt
we would look up and say, ‘When will
you save us?’
“One day the English came really
and saved us from the hands of the
Turks and we came to Jerusalem safe
and sound, where we went to the or
phanage and are living there now,
thanks to the Benevolent Association
and Mrs. Victoria Arsharoony.”
Many orphans are housed in homes
in Jerusalem, now administered by
the American Red Cross. One of these
homes, somewhat run down in four
years of war, is to be made over. With
perfect confidence, one Armenian
child declares the Americans will
make it “shellaby”—very beautiful.
To make the world more ‘shellaby”
for these children will be the purpose
cf the foreign relief work which
American children through the Junior
Red Cross, will carry on. New plans
for oarticipation by the Juniors in
world-wide humanitarian effort will
establish a direct line of sympathy
and friendship from America to those
whose small lives which have known
scarcely any experineces but hardship
and fear.
Being blind is a difficult enterprise,
no matter how bravely one may view
it; but all the same we have compen
sations that complacent persons never
dream of. Blindness takes us out of
the turmoil of life and gives us leisure
to think and get acquainted with our
selves, and enjoy things we neglected
in the excitement and nervous strain
of earning a living. I can testify that
a blind man can take part In the
work and play of the world and get a
mighty good time of it, too.
■‘You have been soldiers of the New
freedom that shall sweep away all
tyrannies from the earth. Now you
are soldiers in a battle that shall
some day free the lives, the minds
and the hearts of the unfortunate
from an intolerable fate.”
That is the message that Helen
Keller, deaf, dumb and blind almost
since birth, brought to the blinded
soldiers £tt “Evergren,” the Red
Cross Institute for the Blind, at Bal
timore. As one soldier put It, "After
hearing that, I don’t understand how
any of our fellows can want to get out
of Evergreen until they have learned
all that can be taught here.”
All Americans are familiar with
Miss Keller’s wonderful career; how
she has learned to talk without ever
having heard a word; how she was
graduated from Radcliffe College with
honors; and how she has come to
ocupy an enviable place in the field
of writers and educators. But no one
will ever know to what extent her
teacher, Mrs. Maicy (Miss Sullivan),
has been responsible for her growth.
A small part of what Mrs. Macy has
been to Miss Keller, the Red Cross is
trying to be to our blinded soldiers.
At the dance which was given for
Miss Keller much merriment resulted
from the inevitable collisions. The
terrible fear that the soldiers undergo
in standing and stepping out alone is
the first difficulty which they experi
ence; but learning to relax to the
rhythm of the music is going a long
way toward making walking easier
and helping them regain their sense
of balance. They are gradually be
coming experts in anticipating and
avoiding “bumps.” Miss Keller has
learned to dance from the floor vibra
tions and from the movements of her
partners.
Visiting the bowling alley she found
men rolling up as large scores as men
with perfect eyesight. She “saw”
them being taught typewriting; mak
ing baskets; caning chairs; binding
books; weaving; reading Braille type
and regaining their self-confideifce.
Miss Keller was delighted at the num
ber of things the men are being
taught to do. The fact that the men
can swim appealed to her particu
larly; and kneeling down on the edge
of the pool in the gymnasium she
gaily caught at their hands as they
came up out of the water.
One soldier, who has endeared him
self to everyone at the Institute be
cause of his indomitable spirit and
faith in the future, asked if he might
be allowed to escort her from the
gymnasium to the Institute. Miss
Keller took his arm and they made
their way with ease through the maze
of walks, finding much to laugh at
and chat about in the darkness that
enfolded them. This same soldier
presented Miss Keller with an enor
mous aluminum ring which he had
made from a piece of a German aero
plane brought down by a French
aviator. It was so large that Miss
Keller wore It on her first finger; but
she displayed it proudly to everyone
whom she met.
Bringing herself as proof that blind
ness need no longer be an unsur
mountable handicap, that the spirit
need not be bowed down becausb
sight has gone, Helen Keller has put
a new f|ith in our blind soldiers, as
suring them of the great benefits they
are receiving and enhancing the op
portunity of the Red Cross in making
them "forget the shadow.”
The {3eward Chamber of Commerce
is agitating the question of erecting
a dock for fishing boats. The chamber
went on record recently as saying
that a considerable portion of the
wealth of Alaska was in fish, and that
by giving the boats a place to tie up
considerable business could be di
verted to the town.
Sourdough Alaskans now control
civic affairs in Anchorage, their
ticket, consisting of three members of
Igloo No. 15, Pioneers of Alaska, win
ning hands down. The successful can
didates were I. Bayles, J. N. McCain
and Mrs. Ula M. Thompson. There
were four other aspirants but were
of the cheechaco brand, and not guar
anteed to keep in this climate.
Deputy United States Marshal M.
H. Healey died at Dillingham, Bristol
Bay in January, according to infor
mation received by United States
Marshal F. R. Brenneman of Valdez.
Mr. Healey took charge of the mar
shal’s office at Dillingham last year,
relieving J. J. Paulson who resigned.
Previous to going to Dillingham, Mr.
Healey was stationed at Talkeotna.
Private Richard O’Neil, an Anchor
age soldier, was recently discharged
from the service and has resumed his
former position as storekeeper at
Chickaloon.
Johnnie Nelson, of Seward, has
been discharged from the tank serv
ice and returned to his home town.
ARTHUR B. GRINDELL, Direc
tor of Publicity for the North
western Division, sailed from
Seattle April 10 for Vladivostok,
where he will be attached to the Si
berian Commission of the Siberian
Red Cross as busines mangaer.
Grindell is a graduate of the Uni
versity of Wisconsin, and has had
long experience in advertising and
exploitation work along the Pacific
coast. He left the service of the Mil
waukee railroad to become publicity
director for this division. For the past
five months he has served also as can
teen director.
“If I should write everything, all
rivers must be ink and the earth
paper, and the trees pens,” writes an
Armenian boy in telling of the depor
tation of his peoples from their homes
by the Turks.
From this boy and his little com
patriots, Dr. John H. Finley obtained
accounts of their enforced exile, while
he was in Palestine as Red Cross
commissioner. These youngsters, in
credibly aged by the hardships they
have undergone, write phlegatically
laconically, almost as if their suffer
ing had rendered them insensible, and
they were recording cold, impersonal
facts. But even in translation, this
matter-of-fact account harks bad
three thousand years in its style, and
might be a story of the wanderings ol
the Children of Israel.
The same boy who uses the pictur
esque metaphor above writes his
story thus:
“I wish briefly to tell of great suf
ferings from the beginning of the wai
-until now in the village of Sivas ir
Gerum. Beginning July 20, 1913, they
began to gather our men as soldiers
After some months our men, becausf
of great suffering, fled without fooc
or water to the mountains. The Turks
like lions, surounded the mountains
with soldiers, and captured the Ar
menian men, being very angry witl
them, and after imprisoning them foi
Auntie Keating’s
Wee
Shop
ha* outgrown It* original
location, and has removed
Into the
WILLIAMS BUILDING
First Street
with a complete line of
Men’s, Women’s and Chil
dren’s Goods.
Come In and look my
stock over.
New York Cafe
First Avenue, two doors below
Modern Laundry.
DINNER A SPECIALTY
STRICTLY HOME COOKING
E. SPARROW
CORDOVA MACHINE
WORKS
E. R. GARNES, Prop.
Residence Phone 101-3
Shop Phone 182
Machine Work of all Kinds,
Blacksmithing, General Repair
ing, Horse Shoeing, Oxy-Acety
lene Welding and Cutting.
AUTOMOBILES
REPAIRED
Office and Shop: City Dock
CORDOVA, Alaska.
Out of Town Jobs Given Strict
Attention.
r===n
Victory |||
III Loan
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II you will have to dig it up in
higher |
$• \ •$ •>*
$• % _ •$ •$
HI 'Income ||
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It is easier to loan than pay out. |||
||| The government’s bills have to |||
||| be paid, and you are the gov- 111
||| eminent, so they are your bills. |||
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