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THE ; KING’S BUSINESS
plosion shook the house. I ran up to my room to find it full of dust and smoke. A shell had come through the three-feet-thick outside wall, scattering its contained bul lets. A shell entered a room in Mrs. Ray- nolds’ house, killing a little Armenian girl. Ten more shells fell in the afternoon. Jevdet was fulfilling his threat in bombard ing our premises. This proved to us we could hope for no mercy at his hands when he should take the city. THE RUSSIANS COME In the darkest hour came deliverance. A lull followed the cannonading. At sunset a letter came from the occupants of the only Armenian house within the Turkish lines, which had been spared because Jevd'et had lived in it when a boy, which gave the information that the .Turks had left the city. The barracks were burned amidst the wildest excitement. So were all the Turk ish teerks, which were visited in turn. The whole city was awake, singing and rejoicing, all night. In the morning all could go with out fear. In the Turkish hospital twenty- five wounded Turkish soldiers, too sick to travel, were left without water and food for five days. There were many unburied dead. Those who were found living were brought to our hospital. On May 19 the Russians came into the city. It had been the knowledge of their approach that caused the Turks to flee. Aram was made temporary governor of Van and the province. For the first time in centuries the Armenians governed themselves. Business revived. People be gan to rebuild their burned houses, and shops and schools were reopened. QUALIFIED DELIVERANCE Not all Turks had fled from the city. Some old men and women had stayed behind, many of them in ^ hiding. The Armenian, unlike the Turk, was not making war on such. They came to us. So it came to. pass, hardly had 6000 Armenian refugees left our premises, when ihe care of a thousand Turkish refugees was thrust upon us, some of them from villages the Russo-Armenian volunteers were “cleaning
out.” Little food could be procured for these people. The city had an army .to feed. All of the missionaries were obliged to drop most of their other duties and spend practically all their time working for our proteges. Medicines were administered and efforts made to give the poor creatures a bath. The wild Cossacks considered the Turk ish women legitimate prey; though the Russian general gave us a small guard, there was seldom a night the first two or three weeks in which we had not to drive off marauders who had climbed over the walls of the compound and eluded the guard. The religion of Islam was never more strongly contrasted with Christianity. Armenian refugees had been helpful and self-sacrificing these Moslems showed themselves absolutely selfish, callous and indifferent to each other’s suffering. ' The Armenians had been cheery and hopeful and had clung to life with wonderful vital ity; the Moslems, with no faith in God and no hope of a future life, bereft of hope in this life, died like flies of the pre vailing dysentery, from lack of stamina and the will to live. Request was sent to the Russian general to send these people out to villages, with a guard sufficient for safety and flocks to maintain them until they could begin to get' their living from the soil. This he did not grant until Countess Alexandra Tolstoi, daughter of the famous novelist, came to Van and took off our hands the care of our “guests,” though they remained on our premises. When her funds gave out and no more were forthcoming, and her Russian helpers, fell ill, she succeeded where we had failed and induced the general to send the Turks out into the country with provision for their safety and sustenance. A FEARFUL PRICE Our Turkish refugees cost us a fearful price. Dr. and Mrs. Ussher and Mrs. Yar row and Miss Rogers fell ill. The sickness proved to be typhus. All were spared to us except Mrs. Ussher, who died on the 14th of July.
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