The San Francisco call. [volume], February 16, 1896, Image 1

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

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VOLUME LXXIX.-NO. 78.
SALISBURY TO
RETIRE SOON.
England's Prime Minister
Said to Be Failing
Rapidly.
EXCUSES MADE FOR HIM.
Chamberlain Poses as Having
Severely Dealt With Cecil
Rhodes.
DIPLOMACY IN THE TRANSVAAL
Krueger Will Be Induced to Make All
the Concessions Demanded by
the Uitlanders.
[Copyright, 1896, by the N«w York Times.]
LONDON, Kno., Feb. 15.— A week of
Parliament has not done much to illumine
the perplexed British mind or to tranquil
lize the British nerves. Undoubtedly its
t Hicf effect has been to rub into public
consciousness new doubts and reservations
about Lord Salisbury's fitness for his
place. Every debate which has arisen has
atitoniaticallv iiung around like the needle
in a compass to point out some new fool
ishness or wanton contradiction in his
ppceches, and Balfour had to pet up 50
many times to defend or explain away his
uncle's indiscretions and banalities of ut
terance that latterly when he arose the.
wnole house tittered ana even the
nephew's loyalty could not prevent his
showing that he saw the joke and pri
vately was rather tempted to laugh him-
Felf. The perception of this curious situa
tion may be the sole source o! the rumor
which 1 have neard hinted at from several
end different quarters of the House of
Commons last night, namely, that Lord
bury 's health is very queer and his
disappearance from the public scene will
not be long deferred.
It trust be several years ago that I re
ported information coming to me from a
perfect source to the effect that Salisbury
had been warned by physicians that he
was definitely in the grin of Bright's dis
ease; but that is a malady which often
gives to its victims a very long rope, and
nothing now recalls it to mind except the
1 leral feeling among politicians that ex
w pt on the theory that he is going to pieces
is recent perform a aces are unaccountable.
Nobody, however, suggests that there is }
anything the matter with Chamberlain.
His triumphs at "Westminster have been
quite of a piece with the popular success
which he won before the session began.
It is true that a close observer may dis
cover that a bulk of the Tory members sit
sourly silent when he is cheered and eye
him with moody dislike, but they do not
dare to do more, and he Haunts his orchid
boutonniere and smart, glib, cocksure de
portment in their bulky faces with evident
enjoyment. According to his story, he
has figuratively mopped the earth with
Cecil Rhodes. He grew almost pathetic in
his picture of that once great mairs re
duced dimensions. One would think that
he returned to South Africa like a prodigal
son whose father slammed the door in his
face, destitute, dejected, to be^in life over
again in remote exile. Mr. Chamberlain's
cold, sparkling eyes almost managed a
tear for this melancholy soectacle, and the
listening House uttered sympathetic
"hear, hears" which might have been
taken for groans.
But if you talk in chartered company cir
cles it is to find an extraordinarily different
view prevailing as to the position of
K nodes and his partners. They got rid of
the costly responsibility of police and
other administration without any curtail
ment of benefits, and they began to see in
the whole transaction merely a promise of
larger dividends than ever; being gentle
men who are not engaged in expanding
the empire for their health, they are able
to contemplate this prospect with a smile.
It is nol likely that much new light will
be thrown on the present or future state of
the Venezuelan controversy by the debate
which is expected to begin Monday. Sir
William Vernon Harcourt has made a
specialty of the subject the last two
months and prepared for a comprehensive
and powerful attack on the Government,
but the Queen's speech rather takes the
wind out oi his sails. No disposition has
been disclosed among the private Tories
to say disa^reeaole things of the topics,
mid the official Tories profess such a com
plete anxiety to settie everything to
America's liking that it seems somewhat
bootless to bombard the loner since aban
doned fortifications where Salisbury in
trenched himself on the Schomburghk
line. There is no reason whatever to
suspect that these ofiioial professions of a
desire to arrange the matter amicably con
ceal any ulterior design, and that being
the case it seems as if the thing might
with profit be taken out of newspaper dis
cussion for a week or two at least and left
to the two foreign offices where it belongs.
Somehow it had not been easy at any
time during the week wholly to credit the
linality of Sexton's refusal to become the
head of the party. Healy b letter to-day,
in which he goes to the 'ength of offering
to retire from public life if Sexton will
f-ay that it will promote harmony and en
able him .to accept the post, removes the
last chance of the Dillon and O'Brien
ci-.que to misrepresent the situation from
«v least that point of view. If Sexton still
persists in holding back it will be interest
ing to wait and see how long it is before
he gets the post of president of the Irish
National Bar.k. No secret is made of the
fact thai if I). lion forces his election to the
chairmanship Tuesday the party will at
once break in..
W extern Europe and even America may
ponder with profit on the fact that the
only visible result ..f (he slaughter of many
thousands ot Armenians has been that the
( zar and the Sultan are now warm allies.
It is interesting, too, to note that they find
their lirst opportunity to appear arm in
arm in Sofia, where Sianibouloffs butch
ery and i'erdinand's base violation of the
The San Francisco Call.
.SAN FRANCISCO, SUNDAY MOENING, FEBRUARY 16, 1896-TWENTY-EIGHT PAGES.
oath sworn to his bride and her parents
have made it possible for the Czar to be
friendly with the Bulgarians and for the
Sultan to bestir himself to secure his vas
sal's recognition by the courts of Europe.
It was as if little Prince Boris had received
a double baptism of blood, once in the
murder-pit of Sassoun and once in the
gutter in front of the Sofia Club. Not even
in Paris do men pretend that this spectacle
is not repulsive. Nobody is to object to
the recognition of Ferdinand, however.
More importance attaches to the impend
ing interview at Mentone between the
Emperor of Austria and President Faure
ilian is generally imagined. It will not be
surprising, indeed, if this meeting will not
come, in after years, to be regarded as a
historical event.
Berthelot was somewhat sniffed at when
he left his laboratory to take charge of the
foreign affairs of the republic, bnt men
laugh no longer, H"e has already done
great things toward lifting France out of
the ruinous chauvinistic morass in which
she had floundered, and this sign of possi
ble understanding; with Austria promises
even more notable results; but very likely
these will soon be exhibiting themselves.
The present French Cabinet has as
many lives as the proverbial cat. On
Thursday morning the whole press of
J'aris agreed in the prediction that the
Ministry would be dead by nightfall, but
when evening came, lo and behold! Bour
geois was not only still Premier, but had a
rousing vote of confidence' by the Chamber
of Deputies to show to his enemies. That
these continue 1 triumphs of the Ministry,
which has only a small minority of true
friends in the Chamber, has something
queer underlying them is, of course, perfect
ly well known, but there are many widely
varying explanations of what this some
thing is. There seems to be a portion of
truth in each of a dozen of these different
solutions of the problem. The Ministry
now possess such a huge collection of com
promising facts relating to any number of
separate scandals that it is believed to hold
a threat of disclosure over fully 300
Deputies, which is more than half the
Chamber. It is said on apparently
good authority that not less than 250 are
involved in some phase of the South of
France railway and telephone contract
scandals alone, and these are only two out
of a large assorted collection. Thus it
happens that even when the present Min
ister of Public Instruction is confronted
by extremely embarrassing proof of his
own bad behavior in the railway matter
the Cabinet is able to force the Chamber
to ignore the thins; and to embark instead
of combat with the Senate. These two
bodies have not before been in open con
flict since the constitution of the republic
was adopted and no precedent exists to
help to guess as to how the deadlock
will terminate. Under ordinary circum
stances such a struggle might easily pre
cipitate a prrave constitutional crisis, but
nobody seems to fear that it may happen in
the case for the simple though unpleasant
' reason that the ministry is believed to
! have eno ;gb secrets of personal corrup
tion up its sleeve to bring the Senate to its
knees if a real emergency arise.
Hungary's spirited determination to
make her millennial celebration memorable
in the history of the world, regardless of
e-pense, has already produced one very
painful side result. Among the numerous
magnificent plans was one to found a mu
seum of fine arts at Budapesth which
would make the rest of the world green
with envy, and the sum of $1,500,000 was
voted for a start. Of this $200,000 was in
trusted to Director Pulszsky, who is the
eldest son of one of Hungary's most cher
ished patriots of Kossuth's time, to travel
through Europe and buy old masters of
art with. Subsequently much more money
was sent to him, but soon it was discovered
that he was buying only absurd, pitiful
rubbish at wild prices, and not even pay
ing for that but running the Government
in debt. Then came the disclosure that he
had embezzled practically the whole huge
sum and allowed it to be taken from him
by a pack of adventurers of both sexes.
His conduct was so idiotic that friends of
his father's bad him certified as insane and
ran into an insane asylum, but a parlia
mentary hubbub was raised by the cleri
cals in revenge for the civil marriage legis
lation, with the result that Pulszsky is de
cided to be sane, and must be tried and
punished. A more unwelcome overture to
a year's national celebration may hardly
be imagined.
Scarcely subordinate in interest to the
direct issue of the chartered company has
been the extraordinary capture of the vir
tuous old Daily News by the Rhodes-Bar
nato combination. The change began
sharply on Monday, when the new editor,
E. T. Cook, took charge, and the amaze
ment has been growing day by day
through the week. It is supposed that
there must also have been some change in
the proprietorship or perhaps a change in
proprietorial investments to explain the
thing, but of this nothing is known.
The Liberals are aghast at the sugges
tion that their time-honored official organ
has sold them out, and are only less dis
gusted to see that W. T. Stead, who was
Cook's first chief on the Pall Mall Gazette,
has now a free hand over the Daily News
columns to boom Rhodes, Mme. Novi
koff, telepathy, ebosts and all the rest of
his either venal or asinine obsessions.
Whatever the explanation may be and
however soon a change again may be
made, it is clear enough that the Daily
News is irretrievably ruined. One week
has sufficed to destroy the work of fifty
years. Naturally this is advantageous for
the Daily Chronicle, which has been
climbing up over its decrepit rival ever
since Massingham and Norman ob
tained control, and no? it steps
into the position of the chief Liberal paper
of England quite by acclamation. Al
though it is evident that America is fully
abreast of Europe in expanding and de
veloping Roentgen's discovery some quaint
incidents of the process here may not be
duplicated on the other side. For in
stance, the Vienna Museum for some time
has possessed as its chief treasure an
Egyptian mummy which is swathed to
resemble a human being, but bearing an in
scription which suggested it to be an Ibis
instead. The thing was too rare and pre
cious to run the risk of unwinding its
bandages to solve this paradox, but the
shadow photograph now plainly reveals
the skeleton of a large bird.
Professor liergmann of Berlin utilized
the discoTery the other day for a surgical
operation, but at the same time made a
speech to the university class, warning
them of the possible dangers involved in
this weird multiplication of facilities for
diagnosis. He foresees that, now that the
position of metals, substances inside the
human form, may be traced with ease,
everybody who had been carrying bullets,
needle 3 and shot for years without harm
"Open my mines and you will have no need to borrow gold."
to himself will be possessed with the
passion to have them located and dug out,
and against this he protests fervently.
He says he made his special reputation
in surgery in the Russo-Turkish war by
never extracting a bullet necessarily more
than by anything else, and even in time of
peace, where antiseptic aids are at their
best, he earnestly deprecates all but
strictly essential operations of this nature.
The Prussian general staff are enthusi
astic over Count Zeppelin's steerable bal
loon, which can ribo 1200 yards, travel
eleven miles an hour, carry two tons, stay
up fully a week and ascend or descend
without throwing ballast or losine gas. It
utilizes aluminum in the motor and steer
ing gear, but the principal novelty is a
secret preparation or sizing making silk
entirely gas tight. The cost of one will be
|75,000, but its value in time of war as a
lookout over a vast range, either by sea or
land, will be incalculable.
The evening papers on Thursday picked
up bushels of extra vennies on the sub
ject of the north pole, but otherwise, in
the opinion of scientists here, nothinc has
been changed. It is not believed by them
that news from Nansen could possibly
come by the way that this report is said
to have traveled; but laymen remember
that scientists have often been beaten by
facts before, and so keep an open mind.
When I reported the report reaching me
that Dunraven already had an apology on
the way to America, it seems that my in
formant had information that such a
course had been insisted on by the Prince
of Wales at Sandringham. and took it
for granted that Dunraven had not
delayed to act on it; but he ap
pears to have held out over two
or three ocoan mails before he finally acted.
This characteristic behavior prepares every
body here lor the disclosure that the com
munication itself is inadequate and grudg
ing in tone, and if this be the case, after
the elaborate and persistent courtesy of
the New York Yacht (Jlub, you may be
sure that no one here whose opinion you
value will resent his being dealt with as he
deserves.
S. J. Solomon's election as associate by
the Royal Academy is popular among
painters, and at another time would have
called forth many congratulations, but it
happens to be overshadowed by the choice
of Edwin A. Abbey, which excites a wider
and more vigorous outburst of enthusi
asm. Despite his magnificent Boston Li
brary creations he is still regarded prima
rily as a black and white man, and illus
trators hail his election as a long belated
recognition of this art. It is noteworthy,
too, perhaps, that at such a time an Amer
ican, the vast bulk of whose work has
been done for America," should be chosen
over many Englishmen without a hint in
any quartc of the slightest jealousy on
national grounds. It is understood now
that plans to pass Sir John Everett Mil
lais over all have come to naught and that
he will bo elevated to the presidency
Thursday without opposition or any
pledge to regard himself as a warming
pan for somebody else.
Harold Frederic.
3/atf» for China and Japan.
WASHINGTON, D. C, Feb. 15. -The
Postoffice Department to-day announced
that mails for China and Japan would bo
dispatched via the steamer Tacorua on the
27th instead of the -Ist, as previously an
nounced.
ON THE EVE OF
A BIG BATTLE.
Activity Among the Forces
For and Against the
; Repeal Bill.
LEGISLATIVE CHAMPIONS
Hot Debate Promised When the
Measure Comes Before
the Senate.
DILATORY AND OTHER TACTICS.
How Huntington's Men Hope to Pre
vent a Vote in the
House.
FRANKFORT, Ky., Feb. 15.— The Goe
bel bill to repeal the Southern Pacific
charter is expected to be reached in the
Senate on Monday. The bill is taking its
course in the orders of the day, and at the
close of the session this evening was the
fourth case on the calendar, and the
measures ahead of the bill are of minor
importance and will be disposed. of with
great dispatch. Senator Goebel will lead
the fight on the floor of the Senate and
will make the opening speech in support
of the measure, and will be assisted by
Senator Taylor and others.
Senator Thomas H. Hays and Senator
Rozel Weissihger of Louisville will lead
the fight aeainst the bill and will vigor
ously resist every point.
Senator John Bennett of Richmond will
also make a speech against the passage of
tlie bill. While the opposition admits
that they have not sufficient strength to
kill the measure, they hope, by extended
discussion and keen parliamentary tactics,
to take up several days in delaying the
passage of the bill.
When the measure shall reach the House
it is there hoped to get the bili in the orders
of the day and follow the several hundred
measures already awaiting their turn for
passage. It is believed the friends of the
bill have sufficient strength to call the
measure up for immediate passage. This
they expect to do. The members of the
House maintain much indifference to the
measure, but it is well known tfaat the
measure has strong friends among leaders
in this branch, and the only visible hope to
defeat it is by preventing its coming to a
vote.
The Huntington people are rallying for
a big tight. Hunt:ngton has addressed
his letters to members in plain envelopes,
and, it is said, marked "personal on the
outside. The California friends of the
measure have taken every precaution to
see that members are informed on the
matter, and have sent communications
to every representative in both personal
letters and printed circulars, setting out at
length the mode of the passage of tLe bill
and every detail in connection with the
subject, and this has lent valuable aid to
the friends of the bill, who have gained a
conceded fight in the Senate. When the
bill has passed the upper branch Hunting
ton and his forces will openly oppose it.
A number of the members who iive at
such a distance from Frankfort as to in
volve a longer railroad journey and a
change of lines left for home early to-day,
after pairing off with some of the oppo
site party; others, who live within a few
hours' ride or did not succeed in pairing,
waited till the session adjourned. By
night the majority of them were out of
town, and things around tbe Capitol Hotel
and other resorts were comparatively
quiet. All the Louisville delegation went
down and with them quite a number of
others, including some of the mountain
county members, who have not been out
of Frankfort since their first arrival.
There is no reason why all of them
should not go. It really seems that any
one staying here is quite unappreciative of
the entire willingness or, you may say, the
intense desire on the part of the Hunting
ton managers to give them every oppor
tunity for enjoying themselves— free rides
on the "kyars" (even if it is against the
law specially made and provided) and free
board and lodging where it can be forced
upon the party in question, free drinks,
free almost anything else wanted — "if you
don't see it don't be afraid to ask for it."
"Will call a coupe and take you in a few
minutes; several of the fellows are going."
There are way 3 and ways of getting a
hold upon a man. If he cannot be got
one way try him with another; anyway,
get him.
The recess is quite a relief to those who
have been engaged in the active work of
the past week, Senator Goebel among the
number. Ha is a wonderful worker, and
though with the duties incident to his
connection with the several Senate com
mittees and the Democratic Steering Com
mittee and the caucus committee and
other things, he has more on his shoul
ders than any other man in the Legis
lature, he is always prompt in his attend
ance on the sessions and meetings, bright
and cheerful in appearance and seems pre
pared for anything that may turn ud.
While he is not at all uneasy about the
"bastard bill" introduced by Mr. Stiglitz,
he nevertheless keeps a close watch on it,
and it is well assured that he will be ready
for any emergency that may arise from
both bills being in the House at the same
time and will minimize its power to hurt
or delay the passage of his bill. The Sen
ator goes to his home in Covtngton this
evening and will probably go down to
Louisville to-morrow morning, but ne will
be on hand bright and early Monday
morning.
As indicated some days ago, John J.
McHenry of Ohio County, son of one of
the Southern Pacific incorporators, has ar
rived, and is quite actively at work
againat the bill, As far a3 can be learned
he has no other object in his visit at this
time. It is said that he has a good deal
of influence over Barnett, the member
from his county, to whom he wrote on the
subject last week; but it is very doubtful
if he can affect the votes of any others.
Though a banker in an interior Kentucky
town, he is a man who commands respect,
and people generally listen when he
speaks.
Mi*. McHenry is very frank in saying
that the repeal of the charter might be con
strued as reflecting on the motives and ac
tion of the incorporators. He is quite
right aboiit that, but auite wrong id sup
posing that there will be no reflection cast
if there is no repeal. The beet thing that
he can do is to stand up for the honor of
bis dead father's name in his position
that Henry D. McHenry was imposed
upon, and was not wittingly a t»arty to the
infamous uses to which that charter has
been put, and insist on the repeal of the
charter.
His idea that repeal might affect the
stock of the company and result in loss
to the shareholders is evidently born from
are over 2000 such shareholders in the
the statement of Mr. Huntington that there
Southern .Pacific Company, most of whom,
it is inferred, have tneir all invested in that
stock and are dependent on the dividends
therefrom for victuals and clothes.
John McHenry was born with a sympa
thetic streak in his composition — not as
thick as a vein of his coaJ, it is true, but
still it is there — and his anxiety about
those suffering stockholders is commend
able; but if he inherited any of said stock
from his father his can vouch
for the fact that he has not had to build
any new vaults in his bank to hold those
generous dividends, nor did Mr.
Huntington send them to him in
a freightcar. It is not probable
thatjhis anxiety for those dependent stock
holders will keep Mr. McHenry away from
his bank long, and so the inhuman mon
sters who are planning to take the bread
out of their mouths will have to be Kept in
check by some one else. In fact, he does
not go away with the elastic buoyancy of
bearing that a man who has achieved a
great philanthropic success should wear.
He must have become discouraged, or may
be he got hold of some of Sutro's red-letter
literature on the subject of the Southern
Pacific oppression, and has experienced a
change of heart and purpose.
The Frisco bureau of education is doing
a deal of good in showing the people of
Kentucky the gravity of the issues in
volved in this repeal bill. The members
of the Legislature have all received a full
share of printed matter, well got up,
and many of them are reading all of it
very carefully, and from the opinions ex
pressed it is evident that the missives have
been sent to some purpose.
The extracts from the Colton letters are
a revelation — almost incredible to many
of them — while to some they are a power
ful warning. A Kentuckian who has got
as far up the political ladder a3 the
Legislature is likely to have an impression
on his inmost soul that there is nothing
that he cannot win if he keeps on, and he
is not quite brave enough to relish the
idea of having ia the years to come the
administration of the estate of some of
the parties interested, producing in court
any Frankfort "Coltou" letters in ".'hich
his name figured ; and this repugnance is
going to make him very cautious, if he
does it at all.
Rumor laid the paternity of the bastard
Stiglitz bill to several persons who have
been in Frankfort lately, but with little
reason, and in no case with less reason
than that of the Hon. Walter Evans, Con
gressman from the Louisville district. Mr.
Evans has not been in Frankfort sinco
early in the session, and while he is ac
quainted with Stiglitz that fact is only ad
ditional proof that he did not have any
thing to do with his having charge of the
bill. Then, too, Walter Evans is a con
scientious, upright man. He is not inter
ested, as attorney for Huntington or other
wise, in the fate of the measure and he
would lend himself to no trickery looking
to coupling its defeat and Hunter's success
together, even though he is a good Repub
lican and a strong partisan. He always
stays within the limits of decency and
honesty.
Mr. Stiglitz will have to foster-father
that bill himself until he is ready to tell
who is the real father. That he and Mr.
Freeman will nurse it carefully and guard
the secret as closely as possible is assured,
but when they get around among the boys
in Louisville to-night and to-morrow Billy
is very apt to be questioned, and will inad
vertently drop a pointer that will be
picked up by some of the newspaper boys
down there and followed up to the end.
Mr. Goebel has taken no notice of the
discourtesy put upon him by Stiglitz's
action as yet, and it is presumed that he
will not. He is rather above being
affronted by Air. Stiglitz in that way.
Goebel is one of the best hands in the
whole Legislature at "sawing wood" with
out uttering more than an occasional re
mark, so whatever he thinks about the
Stiglitz "brat" and its foster-father he
knows that it is not any kin to his, and he
will watch it all the same and even put it
to sleep when the time comes. One baby
and one bill of the game name in the
House at the same time are quite enough,
the Senator thinks.
Goebel and the others are dispos
ing of the open arguments of the
anti - repealers very readily, but they
are at a disadvantage, having other duties
in hand, in having opposed to them a
well-organized and well-handled set of
men of great experience in promoting or
thwarting legislation, as the case might
be, and who are working continually and
only for the interests of their masters. If
there was nothing to fear but upon parlia
mentary tactics and a fair vote all would
be assured ; but there is much also to fear,
as any one acquainted with Jluntington
well knows. Senator Weissinger an
nounced in the Senate that the railroad
would "dispute the passage of the bill over
every inch of the ground." He might
have truthfully added, "and by 6very
means known to influence men."
CO3IIXG TO CALIFORNIA.
Families in the East Who Will Settle at
Aahumt.
CHICAGO, 111., Feb. 15.— Committees
representing the Colonial Clubs of Chi
cago, New York and Massachusetts left
this city for California last night. They
have been delegated by 1200 head 3 of
families, all people of means, to investi
gate tlie site of the Ashurst colony in Te
hama County, Cal., and if they iind it satis
factory to found a settlement and begfti
extensive improvements.
They are accompanied by ten families,
mostly from Chicago, who will imme
diately erect their homes and become the
first residents of the new town. This is
the second colony undertaken by the Na
tional Colonial Society.
PRICE FIVE CENTS.
TURKISH FORCES
ARE STARVING.
Great Destitution Among
the Soldiers Surround
ing Zeitoun.
FORTY PERISH A DAY.
Inhabitants of the Besieged City
Capture Provisions by
Strategy.
AFFAIRS IN THE INTERIOR.
According to Government Figures,
Nearly Forty Thousand Persons
Are Massacred.
[Correspondence of The United Press. 1
CONSTANTINOPLE, Tcrrey, Jan. 31.—
Thirteen thousand armed men are said to
be in Zeitoun and it is surrounded by 35,000
soldiers stationed at five points. But these
latter, by reason of bein^ insufficiently
clothed and fed, are dying at the rate of
forty a day. Special trains from Mersin
and Adapa have been loaded with bread
to be forwarded. Many of the inhabitants
of the besieged city have donned the
clothes of those they have captured, and
come and go at their leisure. A few of
them met a camel train of seventy animals
conveying bread to the Turkish troops.
Accosting them as brothers and expressing
their sense of grateful satisfaction over the
trouble they had been taking in order to
feed the suffering troops, they led them
straight into their city.
It is generally supposed in Adana (where
nothing is yet known of a mediation) that
some sort of an armistice has been agreed
upon till March 1.
The following letter dated January 9
from a city outside of the six provinces in
the interior gives a good idea of the pres
ent state of affairs iv many parts of the
interior:
"I wish to speak only of the present con
dition of Armenians herein its absolute
ly hopeless outlook for the future as long
as this Government is in power. It is now
nearly six weeks since the massacre and
the professions of the Government of sor
row for the unfortunate event have had
time to prove sincere or false. The officials
seem exceedingly friendly toward for
eigners and accede to all their reasonable
requests. Their cordiality in the matter
of the relief expedition of the devastated
villages was marked. The Americans say
that when called upon in reference to any
business the officials receive them era
ciously and promise hearty aid. Theyare
also assured that there is no possibility of
a repetition of such wickedness.
•'The one thing, however, which mars
our confidence in these assurances is the
fact that all officials from the Governor
down were equally loud in their assur
ances previous to November 30. Before
that day we believed them; we thought
that the authorities really intended to
keep quiet, and since that day we can only
say that we have no longer any confidence
in the word of any Turk as to security of
life and property.
"The only effective means of preventing
a recurrence of this massacre, the stern
and swift punishment of a.ll concerned as
far as ascertainable, is wholly neglected.
Those Armenians who loiged complaints
at first are afraid to follow up their testi
mony, because of the threats against them
selves, which they fear.
"If the Government was in earnest they
could assure protection to witnesses, but
that they evidently do not intend to do. I
know of a case of one young girl who was
carried away and some days later was
brought back to her house. The name of
the abductor is Known to her parents. In
formation was given and he was arrested,
but was immediately released on some al
leged technicality. The Turkish estimate
of Turkish violence in the province of
Harpoot and some of the adjacent villages
which has been obtained through a trans
lation of a list prepared in Turkish by a
local Moslem in a high extra Government
position gives the total number killed at
39,294 and the number of destitute at 95,
--770."
CONSTANTINOPLE, Turkey. Feb. 15.
Rev. George P. Knapp, one of the Amer
ican missionaries, stationed at Bitlis, who
is accused by the Porte of having encour
aged seditious movements among the Ar
menians, will receive safe conduct to Con
siantinople.
The authorities have issued an order
prohibiting the circulation in Turkey of
the English papers of February 11.
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