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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 25, 1920)
TUT. SUNDAY OREGOMAX, rOKTLAXD,1 JAMARV .. 100 SCARRED FAGESTELL FATE OF YOUNG GIRLS Many Armenian Maidens Car ried Off by Moslems. TATTOOING MARKS SHAME fiiiorulUalion oT Race Erfcctod by l'niiuc Catastrophe Homeless, Dcfpair Impoverishes Souls. BY WILLIAM T. KLLIS. (Copyright by the Nw York Herald Com pany. All rights reserved.) N'liW YORK. Branded women eiich are the Armenians now return ing from captivity to the Arabs and the Kurds. Of trapic human Interest is the plight of these victims of the Turkish dcuortations. They may be found in increasing numbers, scattered among the Armenian communities of Asia Minor, to which ihev have returned after nearly five years of enforced exile. Were it not for the patriotic resolution of their fellow Armenians to regard these girls and women as martyrs of the race their fate would be horrible to conteinjjate. All the world knows how the Turks, Kurds. Arabs and other peoples, too, took their pick of the girls and young women from among- the de ported Armenians who had been sent into "exile" that the race might die a "natural" death rather than be mas sacred. I am not going to rehearse the horrors of those days. Literally thousands of Armenian girls were forcibly made members of Moslem households; and some were legally married to the men who had secured them. TalooitiR Arab's Idea of Beauty. Among the Kurds and Arabs it is the custom to tatoo the faces of the women, it is thought that their boauty is thus enhanced. Designs on foreheads, lips, chin and cheeks are sometimes only a few blue spots, and sometimes an elaborate design. The Armenian girls were subjected to the custom of the people amidst whom tiiey had been taken. Armenian women do not wear the veil, so their faces are exposed to public gaze. Markings are thus ap parent to every observer. Since tat tooing is not at all used in western Asia Minor, the girl with features so 'ornamented" is proclaimed to friend and stranger as a former inmate of a Moslem home. Her story is written unmistakably. Even although Ar menian communities are agreed that these returned refugees should be treated as deserving of special honor because of what they have suffered for being Armenians, the conscious ness of being branded is not whole some. A sensitive woman shrinks from it as from death. Curious and unfeeling questioners keep the fact alive. Girls Burn Tbeir Faces, Many of these Armenian girls re tort to burning to obliterate the hate ful sign-manual of their Moslem cap tivity. They endure the pain and the ensuing disfigurement if orrly they may get rid of the blue brands of the Bedouin and tho Kurd. Unfortunate ly, this drastic treatment not only leaves terrible scars, but it also tells its own tale as plainly aa the tattoo marks themselves. With the party of Americans who traveled with me across Asia Minor were a young Armenian girl and her brother, homeward bound to a sister, the only survivor of the family. The girl was really beautiful. Her fea tures were regular, her skin was clear, her color good. She had not become hardened by her captivity and her face was modest and winsome. Because of her beauty she had been tattooed with unusual elaborateness of design by the women of the Kurd ish household where she had been kept. As our train drew east ot the Taurus mountains her appearance ex citr.d more jind more comment, the was a vijle advertisement of the deportations. Crowds would some times gather when she appeared at tho door of the box ia.r. Oriental fashion, there was no diffidence about asking questions of her. On the part of tlio Armenians these were really sympathetic. But poor Kliza under went a severe ordeal between Arana anil AJium Kara Ilissar. She promised me to go to the mis sionary doctor for possible e.ffacement of the facial decorations, though she had planned to burn them off herself. Ifer features were so completely cov ered that the resultant scars would hideously disfigure her. Physicians had told me that there is no way known to them for the removal of tattooing- without trace, and if this is so the fate of thousands of Arme nian girls is pitiable. "Worst Scar Arc In Souls. Face branding is not the worst that has happened to the Armenian de portces. Stories from the near cast have dwelt so exclusively upon the horrors of hunger and homelessness that little has been said about the worst fate that has come to the Ar menians as a result of the persecution. This is the effect upon their spirits Mvriads of Armenians have been branded in their souls. Many, or more, of the girls in captivity, for instance, have neither sought nor desired de liverance. They prefer to remain in the indolence of Moslem harem life they have become Moslems in reality This is the deepest wound the Turks have made upon Armenia. True, once free, most of the liberated girls again become Armenians in spirit, but their real life has been crippled. Only Hawthorne or a Hugo could write this aspect of the Armenian tragedy Speaking generally, it is the con census among relief workers that there lias been inevitably a great slump in the character of the Ar nienians who have been deportees and refugees. The men, once the hardest working race in the near east, have lost their spirit of industry. Hope less despair has impoverished the souis of a host of them. The women are readier to work than their hus bands and sons. Also, 1 was told by Gregorian priests and Protestant Armenian pas tors, there has been a grave decline in the religious faith and interest of the people. The spiritual fervor that marked many Armenians in the earlier stages of the persecutions has now been succeeded by a numbness and indifference. Once a notably chaste people, the animal-like condi tions of life into which the deporta tion has forced them have resulted in a. serious moral deterioration. All of wlich is laid to the door of the Turks as the crown of their Atrocities; they have smitten and Jjranded a nation in its soul. f' ' vs. r st 'fjn Forty Dollar Suits and Overcoats That Look Like Sixty , Owing to the decline of the dollar, many clothes today look like forty and cost like sixty, but I still am able to sell forty-dollar clothes that look like sixty dollars' worth of fabric, tailoring and style. Exceptional Worth at Three Prices: $35, $4 0,$45 You cant go wrong on clothes like these 13 Ml en My store closes at 6 o'clock every day. TINTED LONDON WANTED & FUTURISTIC PLAX TO liKIGHT- EX IP CITY IS ADVOCATED. Search for Panacea to Cause Eng land to Be Merry Leads to New Suggestion. (Copyright by thu Xew York World. Pub lished by Arrangement.) LOXDOX, Jan. 24. (Special Cable.) -There is no diminution in the search for a panacea to make England bright and merry. One of the latest suggestions is by Crossley Davies in the Architects' Journal, showing how London can be brightened. His futur istic scheme is calculated to make the empire's capital glUter even in a pea soup fog He advocates pavements of red brick and white stone, floral balconies on publie buildings, orange trees and evergreens between classical columns on the first floor -jf apartment houses, glazed tiles, mosaics and frescoes to ornament impressive buildings. Car rying his suggestions further. Mr. Davies prescribes delicate tinted shop fronts and house doors and windows with blight awnings, gilt and bronze porticos and railings, gold and green tiles and brightly-hued marbles. An entirely difieient panacea to re establish old-timo merry Kngland is found in a statement by TM: Edward Mellanby before the London Medical society on the effects of aJcohol. What he considers would keep a man drunk for the longest time is a mix ture of rum Hnd milk, and at the same time would eliminate the worst effects of getting drunk. Dr. Mellanby says that a man be lieves when intoxicated that he is a better target shot than when sober, although he really is not. He also said that a man can get sober quicker by walking- or running about than by sleeping. cials are not selected on the 'guess what I have in my hand' plan." LOWER COSTS PREDICTED V. S. Food Head Advises Against .Stocking Up AVith Clothes. NEW YORK, Jan 24. A decrease in the cost of living In the next few months was predicted today by Arthur Williams, federal food administrator. He based his belief on the spirit of economy prevailing among the people as a whole, decreased exports and increased production. Prices of clothes will drop sharply within a year. Mr. Williams believes, and he advleed against stocking up apparel now. The wiser course, he says, is to buy only clothes that actually are needed. Inland Empire Covered With Snow. SPOKAXE. Wash.. Jan. 24. Snow fall of from two to four Inches was general over eastern Washington and northern Idaho today, according - to reports received here. The fall here thi eevenlng was estimated at four inches. S. A H. Qreen Bolman Fuel Co. Ad-r. tamps for eaao. Main B1. 6(0-31. SEATTLE WOMAN' TO TALK Mrs. O. F. Sanison to Tour Oregon for Armenian Drive. Mrs. O. F. Lamson of Seattle, who came to Portland last year to speak during the Armenian and near east relief campaign, has been procured by J. J. Handsaker, state director, again this year, and will arrive in this city today. She will make a speaking tour of the state, following a schedule which is now being worked out. The latter part of the week she will spend in southern Oregon, speak ing at Roseburg on Friday, January 30: at Grants Pass on, Saturday, Jan uary 31. and at Ashland and Medford on Sunday, February 1. Mrs. Lamson is the wife of one of Seattle's prominent physicians, and is herself a practicing physician, hav ing graduated from the Johns Hop kins university. She is also a grad uate of several other universities, and is an earnest and effective speaker. "5 ..-rifKTJ- Ml eSS PLAYING TODAY and ALL THIS WEEK The story of amiss with principles pure as the Ten Command ments, with a pair of eyes that made Cleopatra look like a con sumptive selling-plater and with a list of "vamped" victims reach ing from Portland to New York. MURTAGH'S 3 "1 Next Saturday: CHAS. RAY and CHARLIE CHAPLIN CONCERT ON OUR $50,000 ORGAN 'Liberty Bell" March . Sousa 'Caprice Viennois" .Kreisler 'Polonaise" in A Major. ........ ....... .Chopin 'Indiana Moon" .Wallace 'Winter Garden Echoes" (A medley of Al Jolson's Songs), "Hello, Central, Give Me No Man's Land," "Waikiki," "Dixie Lullabye," "I'll Say She Does" Arr. By Murtagh TODAY AT 12:30 This Week's Programme De Luxe 1 Liberty Educational "Weekly Odds and Ends of Interest Compiled by the Management. 2 Mnrtagh at the Giant Organ, Play ing "Indian Moon." 3 Sayings of Wit. 4 Mr. Earl Alexander, Tenor, in a Selected Number. 5 Liberty Pictorial Review Interesting World Events, Com piled by the Man agement. 6 Selected Cbmedy. 7 The Liberty Pre- f'J sents, as its Pro logue to the Fea ture, "The Virtuous Vamp": (a) San Francisco During the Fire and Earthquake of 1906. (b) San FrancUco After the Fire. a An Unusual Hat Event Preparing for inventory, I offer 300 Men's Hats Stetson Duxlap Trimble, Borsalino now selling at S7 to $10 at the unusual price of Five Dollars Free of War Tax This is -a real money-saxing opportunity. My stone closes -at 6 o'etoci every -day- BRYAN DOUBTS HOOVER Candidate "Unacceptable" Until "Position Is Staled." NASHVILLE, Tenn., Jan. 24. Pending a statement of his "position on the questions at issue" by Herbert Hoover, William J. Bryan told news papermen here today he could not consider the candidacy of the ex food administrator for the presiden tial nomination. "When Mr. Hoover takes the people into his confidence and states his po sition on the questions at issue," Mr. Bryan said, "it will be time enough to consider his candidacy. High offi- Schools at Memphis Closed. MKMriUS. Tenn., Jan. 24. Orders closing theaters and other places of anniwmrnt as a means of checkinir r t lie spread of inf lueny-a.. ttc ex tended today to include both public and private schools and public gath erings generally. There were 51 new cases rcuoj-tcU today. TODAY, 3 P. M. MUNICIPAL Popular Concert Public Auditorium Quartets Solos Largest Pipe Organ in Northwest ANY SEAT 10c Evening Commerce Courses At the Y. M. C. A. School of Business Administration and Accountancy OFFERED NEXT SEMESTER Principles of Accounting Corporation Finance Corporation Accounting law of Contracts- Auditing . Law of Partnerships Business Economics Kales and Negotiable Instruments Professional Accountancy Course Corporation Accounting C. P. A. Quiz Course REGISTRATION RECilNS FEBRUARY 1 SEMESTER II'E.S FJiBHL'AHV 9 Write or call for full particulars OFFICE OF THE DEAN, JUIV. C, ROOM 416, Y. M. C A. BLDU. NU S700 X V J? I V- 7 8 The Liberty Presents Talmadge in "A 4 Virtuous Vamp. . ! dt,-. , -X; . Z'J. Make use or your old carpets and clothes. FRAYED FLUFF RUGS (THERE'S A DIFFERENCE) More durable, serviceable and sanitary. All alses. o order too small or large to receive carerul and prompt attention. Hive yon seen our sjmrns fluff Rugsf Somethina: new. All branches of carpet cleaning:, refilttnic and aisintc ariven careful attention. Our sa.lcsmcu will call nnii show you. Showroom and salesroom at the factory. isitora at the factory are welcome. Wholesale and Retail. PORTLAND RUG COMPANY 1672-4 EAST 17TH STREET W rite or phone us. Automatic 213-24. x- : wBy S3 v ea. tf et ''" v y IV-- ' Vs ''AvxX1! 11 I ace la IN s 3 3 i i
