Arthur Fletcher Whitin Letter, 1896

Description

Constantinople, June 29th 1896

Dear Mr. Whitin,

Some three months ago I received word from Mr. Peet our treasurer of $200.00 contributed by you for the sufferers in Marash. My father also wrote me about your gift about the same time. I am filled with shame that I did not write to you without delay to thank for the contribution and to tell you how it was spent. I can only ask you to pardon me for my tardiness which was not intentional.

The press of work all through this sad winter and spring has been such as I had never before known in my life. Children and household affairs have been neglected in a way which would have very wrong but for these peculiar circumstances, and letters which ought to have been written have been deferred like this one., from week to week and even month to month.

I have at last run away from Marash for the summer’s rest and am now with my little Carrie at Kennedy Lodge, Henrietta’s beautiful house at Hissar. We shall doubtless have another hard winter next year, and I hope to go back to the work with new energies, after this refreshing change and rest.

I devoted the whole of your $200 to clothing the poor wretched refugees who poured down from Zeitoon to Marash as (?) as Zeitoon was open. There were already about 9000 people in Marash who were dependent on relief funds, and when these 1000 refugees poured in, we did not know what to do with them. For about four weeks 450 of them were crowded into a large building that had been erected for public exercises of an Armenian school. The floor was of stone, all the windows were broken, and it was midwinter.

The refugees were with very few exceptions destitute of bedding, and they had worn the miserable rags on their backs without change or washing for four months. They were swarming with vermin and I had never before beheld such misery as the convoys of refugees came in under guard(!) from Zeitoon on several successive days the Muslims of Marash turned out to meet them, and showered them with stones and beat them with sticks as they passed through the streets, their guards making no objection, but rather enjoying the fun. Some were killed thus in the streets. Most of the Zeitoon refugees were men though there were a few women and children. Thousands of these must have perished from want and cold in Zeitoon. We went to work immediately to relieve these poor people, and Marashis,, needy and suffering as they themselves were, came forward nobly to help. Some contributed boards to cover the stone pavement, some brought soap, rice, dishes etc. and the windows were all covered with paper.

Mrs. Macallum worked the bedding department, and turned out “yorgans” or comforters as fast as possible, while I employed 70 women at making clothes, and it was thus that I used your money. It not only helped to cloth the refugees, but gave employment to 70 poor widows. You would be touched if you could have seen how these widows are for work. Though we did our best, some weeks had passed before the refugees were supplied with the needed bedding and clothing. I used to feel sad indeed as I went to bed these winter nights with the bitter north wind was raging around us, and thought of the refugees stretched out on the stone floor- which had not yet been fully covered with boards- without any warm covering.

Typhoid fever and dysentery ere raging among them, and we were obliged to open a hospital for them. The disease proved so contagious that of the 43 who worked in the hospital, including, doctors, nurses, servants, all but one, became ill and ten of them died. All the time we were caring for the refugees, we were also distributing aid to 9000 Marashis, and also thousands more in the surrounding villages. This was a large family to clothe, was it not? And as I had the charge of the clothing department, I have had enough to do all these months. In March the first boxes of clothing came from Constantinople, and were a great help. It is a subject for thankfulness that all the boxes sent in from Constantinople and other places have reached us safely. Not one has been lost.

The refugees have at length nearly all returned in fear and trembling to their ruined villages. The Red Cross people are giving valuable aid in the line of implements, dishes and seed. If the government would only protect these villages there would be hope that in the course of time they would be able to take care of themselves, though they will certainly need aid for a while. But the prospects are very gloomy for acts of violence and cruelty are still very frequent and no Muslims are punished for such deeds.

And in Marash itself, while there is no new special fear or excitement, business is crushed. Strong able -bodied men sit listlessly at home because there is no work to be had, and the widows and orphans lead a hopeless cheerless existence from day to day. Our relief funds are given out, at the rate of 5 cents a head, every week! Food is cheap in Marash, but this only enough to buy dry bread, nothing else. The outlook for the next winter is dark indeed. If even these funds fail, hundreds will die of starvation before our eyes. I look forward to the winter with unspeakable dread, and feel selfish longing sometimes to run off somewhere, where I could not know of the terrible misery, that I cannot relieve.

Perhaps it is unkind of me to trouble you with this picture of suffering, but when I get started on it, I don’t always know when to stop. I know that you pray for these sufferers and though our faith is sorely tried, we must believe that God reigns, and sometime there will be a change. Tell them we hope to hold on and do what we can.

With all good wishes,
Clara H. Lee