Holmes County Republican

Affairs in Syria.

The Beyrout correspondent of the Boston Traveler, in a letter dated July 19th, says:

The fanaticism of the Moslem population was fanned into a flame when the news of the cold-blooded massacre of five thousand Christians in the streets of Damascus arrived, and the families of the European merchants, together with thousands of the Christian population, fled to the nearest available ports of safety. The streets of Beyrout were almost deserted, and the town became as silent as a grave yard.

The mists of dread and gloom were somewhat dissipated, however a few days ago, by the timely arrival of two immense French line-of-battle ships, the booming of whose guns gave joy to the disheartened Christians, and at the same time a warning voice to those who thirsted for Christian blood.

Damascus, the beautiful, the terrestrial paradise, how art thou fallen? This old Abrahamic city, of more than two hundred thousand inhabitants, has been most cruelly despoiled. The murder of five thousand men in the streets is a deed of blood calling for the direst vengeance of earth and heaven. Five thousand men killed in war would excite but little feeling comparatively, for warriors count the cost, and voluntarily expose themselves to the death-whistling bullet and bloody sword; but five thousand Christians cut down by Moslems while pursuing their daily avocations in the most peaceful and inoffensive manner, it is an appalling crime, and stirs the deepest emotions in the human heart.

Jerusalem is now in danger, being menaced from without by three thousand Bedouin Arabs, and from within by fanatical Moslems. The missionaries have fled to Jaffa, and unless the Governor proves to be a better man than his colleagues, Jerusalem will be laid low.

Horrible stories are afloat about the thousands of Christian women of Damascus. Our blood almost congeals at the thought of such a fate. I knew many of them; they were fair and beautiful, and many of them gentle and to some extent cultivated. Hundreds of these were doubtless buried beneath the ruins of their burning houses; but we are told that thousands were carried off into the interior by the Koords and Arabs of the desert, to be destroyed at their leisure. Horror of horrors! We learn that many of them have turned Moslems to save their lives. At Damascus upon the news of the insurrection reaching them, they put turbans upon their heads in the Moslem style, and began to pillage the house of their host as if they had been Moslems. They rushed out into the streets with plunder upon their backs, cursing the Christians dogs, the Christian religion, and uttering all the Moslem imprecations.