[Inclosure 1, with No.
524.—Extract.]
Letter of Rev. L. Bartlett.
On the 9th of August, as men were at work completing the street wall in
front of the house (which stands hack several arshuns [sic] from the wall) and building a gateway, no work being done
on the house itself, zabtias (watchmen) were sent by the musterariff,
and with their own hands tore down the staging at the gateway and a part
of the frame work of the gate itself. They also seized the seven men who
were at work and imprisoned them, and for their release I was obliged to
pay 175 piastre.
In a conference with the musterariff immediately after the affair he
became very angry and declared that from my refusal to sign the desired
pledge, viz, that the building was not to be used either for a church or
school, it was understood that I was building a church and threatened to
make a report to that effect and send to Constantinople, the result of
which would be an order to demolish the house at once. I claimed the
right under the municipal law to finish the wall and the gate for the
proper protection of the property, but he stoutly insisted that I had
“no right to move so much as a handful of earth.”
August 10 I received a telegram from Dr. Dwight announcing that a “tékid
emr” (emphatic order) had been sent to Konia to the vali
(governor-general), and on the same day I telegraphed to the vali that
from two telegrams received from Constantinople I learned that an order
for the completion of the building had been sent, and requested him to
forward it without delay to the musterariff of Bourdour.
On the evening of August 12, as two young men were bringing from a shop
in the market to the new house a door which had been built for the
street wall it was forcibly taken from them by the police with the
accusation that they were secretly at work on the house, which was
false, as no work has been done on the house since we were ordered to
stop.
On the 13th of August the musterariff called me and read to me a telegram
from the vali requesting him to call me and inform me that in the matter
of the house no decision had yet been reached; that he was in
correspondence with the authorities at Constantinople, and that when a
decision was arrived at he would inform me.
I learn and fully believe that the Armenians and the Greeks are unitedly
determined to prevent the building of the house, and one of the leading
Greek citizens said to a reliable friend of mine that if an order were
sent to finish the building it could not be done. It is even now
strongly suspected by our friends that a report has already been
prepared and sent to Constantinople declaring that we are building a
church, and if so, it may delay the matter still longer.
For several days we have been insulted and stoned in the streets; this by
boys, but most clearly with the consent and encouragement of adults. A
few days ago I was struck in the back by a stone thrown with violence.
On the evening of the 15th our house was stoned and two windows broken,
besides other indignities offered. On the same evening one of our
friends, a convert, was struck by a large stone, knocked down and badly
injured. On the 16th I complained to the musterariff of this treatment.
He replied, “You must make a petition,” which I did, and in the evening
several police appeared and all was quiet, but to-day, the 17th, it has
been as if there had been no orders to preserve the peace. Nellie, my
daughter, and also our Bible woman were invited this afternoon to a
garden near by. Alter a little Nellie sent me a note asking me to send a
policeman, as boys were insulting and stoning them. I sent for a
policeman, who shortly afterward arrested some boys and took them to the
guard house. I then went to the garden to escort my daughter home, and
all the way we were insulted as we had been before, and the boys
arrested were very shortly released. I went to see the musterariff, who
congratulated himself on the promptness he had shown the night before. I
told him that his authority, as displayed, was not worth five paros, and
that unless the offenders were punished it would all be in vain. He
pleaded that all denied the charges made; that all the watchmen and
persons who ought to know denied all knowledge of any difficulty. The
fact is the whole town is in a ferment on our account. I have hardly
ever seen the like, and in my opinion the musterariff is responsible for
it all, for there was no trouble of any kind until he sent and tore down
our staging and imprisoned our men.
Thursday a.m., August 18.—The house is finished,
for the flames have swept it clean. About midnight the alarm of fire
aroused us, and already the building was enveloped in flames and there
was no possible hope; neither was any effort made to save it. A young
man who was sleeping in the building barely escaped with his life,
losing everything and escaping in his night clothes. That the building
was intentionally fired there is not the shadow of a doubt, for there
was no fire used in the building and the man who slept there never uses
tobacco. There was no wind, or it would have been impossible to check
the fire and many houses must have
[Page 590]
burned; as the building stood alone, there was
little danger of spreading. Before the fire broke out stones were thrown
at our windows three times, twice breaking glass and the last time while
three policemen were in the street under our windows and heard the glass
rattle. Soon after the tire a dozen or more police were gathered in the
street under our window, and we could easily hear their loud talk as
some of them declared of us, “They are all liars, they have done it
themselves,” etc., with all sorts of severe epithets. All kinds of
threats are being made, and we know not what a day may bring forth.
