Armenian population in larger towns 177,700 Armenian population in villages 538,500 Number killed in towns (estimated) 20,000 Number of Armenian villages (about) 3,300 Villages destroyed 2,500 Number killed in villages, no data, but probably, 60,000 Number reduced to starvation in towns 75,000 Number reduced to starvation in villages 366,600 CHAPTER XV. RELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA. In presenting an account of the relief work done in Armenia, the order in time has been observed in a very great degree in order that as the distress and misery increased the reader might see that greater efforts were made to relieve the terrible condition of the starving thousands. March 15, 1896, Hon. John Wanamaker who was then in the East, sent this cablegram to the Relief Committee of Philadelphia. "I am convinced that the necessity is appalling. Needs for relief extremely urgent." The spring of 1894 saw the gaunt spectre of poverty stalking through this devoted land. It trod on the beautiful valleys and they lost their verdure and their harvests withered. Poverty became hunger and cheeks grew thin and death's pallor looked out from hollow eyes. Hunger became starvation and the keenest form of suffering became the portion of thousands of once prosperous and happy Armenians. The Rev. Mr. Macallum, a missionary at Erzeroum said of the situation in and about that city in April 1894: "The famine continues to increase in severity. Spring is opening up late. Very many of the farmers have no grain to sow; we wish we had enough money on hand to supply the Protestants of Khanoos with seed, but I am sorry to say that what has come to us is now exhausted, or practically so. We are feeding about seven hundred people a day in this city, who otherwise would have nothing to eat. Besides this, we have sent sufficient out to the country districts to keep life and courage in several hundred more." Over $2,000 had been sent to Mr. Macallum up to the middle of May but though spring had arrived and the agony of the cold was over, there was no work to be found, and over one-third of the sixty thousand inhabitants of Erzeroum had nothing to eat except the bread of charity. In the Passen and Khanoos district near by a similar famine was prevailing, and but for the help sent to them many of the people would have died of starvation.