The fugitives returning after the Kurdish fiends had returned into the mountains had neither the means nor the opportunity to cultivate the soil which their forefathers had possessed for many generations. Their homes were wrecked, their farms destroyed, and their implements and cattle seized by the bandit mountaineers, and they themselves were compelled to seek such shelter as the woods and caves afforded. It was the Medical Missionary at Van, Dr. Grace W. Kimball whose heart was so smitten with anguish at the sight of such suffering that she determined to let the world know what the horrors of Sassoun really were. In the smitten districts at least five thousand were living in the mountains and faring little better than the wild beasts. They were sustaining life on roots and berries and were almost naked--many wholly so. It is not surprising that this terrible privation should have bred disease, and, when she wrote, fever and other physical troubles were carrying the wretched people off in large numbers. She described the condition of the women and little children as miserable beyond anything she had ever heard of. This brave Christian woman did not spend the time in lamenting the wretchedness of the people among whom she labored, but set about to find out some practical way of helping them. Food, clothing, and shelter were the three prime necessities. She gathered the adults in about one hundred of the fugitive families, and soon had them employed at making cotton cloth--an industry with which they were already familiar. She supplied the material, and paid the workers for their labor, expending in this way about $100 weekly, which was applied to the relief of the families. By this excellent method, she gave the needed help to many of the sufferers without pauperizing them, and she earned the warmest love and gratitude of the Armenians. But the market for the product of this labor was soon supplied and the resources of the missionaries were soon exhausted. It was then that she wrote in the anguish of her soul to this country and this was the origin of The Christian Herald Relief Fund which collected and sent many thousand dollars to the centers of massacres and suffering. Early in October, 1895, Mr. W. W. Howard the commissioner sent by The Christian Herald of New York to relieve the persecuted and hunger smitten peasants of Armenia, set forth on his errand of mercy. In retaliation for his articles on the terrible suffering in Armenia and its cause, the Turkish government resolved to prevent Mr. Howard from entering its dominions. Refused permission to pass through Anatolia he was compelled to go through Russia and Persia, and eventually was prevented by the Turkish officials from crossing the frontier opposite Van, a notification of the order for his exclusion being sent to Mr. Terrell, the American minister at Constantinople, who cabled the fact to this country.