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 THE RED RUGS OF TARSUS

for advancement, so long as Armenia is under Turkish rule? They really have no chance, the boys with a diploma. They are educated for unhappiness and for danger. We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that after they have been years in our schools, American education fits them for American opportunities, and un- fits them for Turkish opportunities. More than this, after we have given them the vision of another kind of national as well as another kind of individual life, they are marked men among the Turks, and are the first to be sought out when a massacre comes. Herbert and I have our misgivings about all this work here. In spite of the heralded liberty of the Consti- tution, it requires more optimism than we have to believe that Armenians are safer under Young Turks than they were under old Turks. Bairam means feast. After every religious fast, a b air am. It is an occasion for eating im- moderately, and for giving a little pleasure and break in the dull monotony of woman and [77]

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