The Red Rugs of Tarsus: A Woman's Record of the Armenian Massacre of 1909Gibbons, Helen Davenport
History
The Red Rugs of Tarsus: A Woman's Record of the Armenian Massacre of 1909
Gibbons, Helen Davenport
Adana (Turkey) -- History; Armenian massacres, 1909 -- Turkey -- Adana
Sure enough, it was blowing in our direction. We went to the window
again, never thinking of danger. _You cannot consistently keep your mind
on danger to yourself._ As we looked, the flames were lying low, blue
tipped with yellow, and reaching towards us. We concentrated on a change
of the wind, and there was a change. The flames instead of lying low
were vertical, licking and swaying. Then they lay low again, this time
back on the ruined buildings. This may have been coincidence. You may
think so if you like. But I believe I saw the hand of the Lord come down
and forbid those flames to move farther. Never again will I have to be
reasoned with to believe in miracles.
FOOTNOTE:
[4] As a result of his heroism, Socrates (that is not his real name, but
never mind) has been our ward ever since. With what aid we could give
ourselves, and the help of friends to whom we have told this story,
Socrates finished his college course at Tarsus, took a year in medicine
at Beirut, and has since been studying at the Turkish Medical School in
Constantinople. Despite the difficulty of communications between Paris
and Constantinople, we have been able to follow him and help him without
interruption during the years of the war in Europe. Socrates will have
his medical degree in the spring of 1917. He is a loyal Turkish subject,
and has done splendid work in ministering to the wounded in the Balkan
War and in the present war. When the Bulgarians were attacking the
defenses of Constantinople, we loaned him to Major Doughty-Wylie, who
was at that time in charge of the British field ambulance work. Major
Doughty-Wylie recommended him for the British Red Cross medal.
LIFE AND DEATH
_Tarsus,
Saturday,
April seventeenth,
Sometime in the morning._
Mother dear:
Once that wind changed, we slept. Mary and I slept from one to three.
Baby Rogers is a good little chap. Yes, my dear, "I laid me down and
slept. I awaked, for the Lord sustained me." This is the way to learn a
text--live it.
When we got awake, it was daylight. Shouting again at the gate. I ran to
my study window that looks down into the street outside of the gate.
Excited men were pushing and struggling. Their cries were shrill. My
heart sank. Was the killing to be renewed under our eyes? Then Mary
said, "They are selling bread, and want six _metallics_ a loaf." The
business of life goes on in spite of cataclysms. Selling bread! In the
midst of life we are in death. Yes, but in the midst of death we are in
life. The family goes home to dinner after the funeral. When you are
living the cataclysm, however, your vision is not adjusted to the small
events. The matter-of-fact things are happening because they always
happen and must happen.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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