“Which of the two do you most pity--the widowed or orphaned girl cowering among rags in some corner of her ruined home, trembling at every footstep of a man, be he Turk or Kurd, who may force his way in and outrage her before her children, or her brothers and sisters; or that other girl who, distinguished perhaps for beauty, has pleased the eye of some Turkish Aga, and, in spite of her cries and tears, has been dragged into his harem, and forced to give up at once her honor and her faith? Can we understand now what drove hundreds of Armenian women to suicide? Or why those fifty women of Lessouk and Krauta threw themselves into the wells, or leapt from the edge of precipices? We can realize the horror that filled the soul of that highborn Armenian lady who was carried off with a troop of women and children and a few men from Uzounova (twenty-five miles east of Harpout). When they reached the banks of the Euphrates she called to her companions, and, rushing to the river, threw herself in. That dishonor is worse than death is proved by the fact, that fifty-five women and children followed her example, and perished in the waters. “Who would not feel compassion for the unfortunate old man who thus expresses his nameless grief in a letter to his son: ‘Oh, I dare not tell you ... they came and threatened to kill me if I refused to give up your sister. After they had taken everything else--blankets, beds, clothes, provisions, and even fuel--they returned to demand our daughter. I was prepared to withstand to the end, but when she saw that they were about to kill me, she threw herself at their feet, and cried out: “Spare my father! Here I am.”’ “Admirers of Turkish army organization and of Mohammedan civilization ought to know that even the brutality of the Kurdish hordes and the cynicism of the townspeople were thrown completely into the shade by the infamous conduct of the soldiers and officers. Although it fills me with disgust to dip my pen into this sink of corruption, I feel it is necessary that the world should know what deeds are done in this home of promised reforms by the guardians of law and order. “The truth of the following account is established by two independent testimonies which lie before me: ‘In the village of Husseyinik (vilayet of Harpout), six hundred soldiers (and their officers) collected together in the military depot about the same number of women and young girls; they first outraged them, and then murdered the unhappy victims of their horrible lust.’ “Does not this blood cry to Heaven? And even though the kings of the earth be deaf to its cry, will not God hear?”