The Finger Print
Maguire, William A
THE FINGER PRINT By WILLIAM A. MAGUIRE 'THE Turkish town of Samsun, on the shores of the Black A Sea, witnessed the tragedy of the Armenian exodus. The United States destroyer squadrons saw bits...
...each dipped a finger into the paint and then solemnly made an imprint on the cross...
...If your imagination permitted you to overlook the quality of the tweed of his knickers and to fancy a crook in his hand instead of a malacca cane, he looked like one...
...We will soon find out who stole the money...
...It delighted me the way this fat Moslem acquitted himself...
...He was back in a few minutes with the money in his hand...
...he was obviously worried...
...Before half of them had made the sign, a young man came up...
...Many questions would be asked regarding the sailings to Constantinople...
...Clever though crude...
...Paine's voice was loud and his words were sharp...
...He had the air of an Old Testament patriarch, with his long beard, shaggy eyebrows and deep-set eyes...
...Paine performed many of the functions of a shepherd...
...The physical act of touching the cross was quite too much...
...He had accompanied his flock on the long trek and won from Paine an appointment as overseer of the place...
...Mahmud delivered the ultimatum...
...The three days of grace had passed and Paine found himself confronted with the embarrassment of having to make good his threat...
...The priest justified his unusual procedure in this wise...
...Have my people assemble here in the church...
...The suspect was a woman who had slept alongside the victim the night the money disappeared...
...But he was not, as we shall see, a very clever detective...
...Mahmud followed them in...
...Yet there was one impression which I do not wish to forget...
...Anyone capable of stealing $70.00 from an Armenian, let alone a refugee, should be able to scavenge enough food to keep alive...
...it was the cross...
...But the woman suspect will be at Mr...
...Paine's office at ten o'clock," said Mahmud...
...Tell this woman that unless the money is returned within three days, I'll give no more food to the refugees...
...From one of the windows of the office 1 saw a veiled Turkish woman hanging clothes on a line...
...A great deal need not be told...
...I asked Paine...
...I stepped ashore one morning and found Paine waiting for me on the jetty...
...The mission of the destroyer to which I was attached was to assist in the American relief work among thousands of refugees whom the Turks had driven over the rugged hills of Anatolia and down to the more hospitable shores of the Black Sea...
...There was no room for them in town...
...While we were still at the wardroom table I inquired about his detective work, and learned that his plan had failed...
...The old man said, "I think I can get the money...
...They called away a motor dory for us and we were soon put-putting toward the jetty...
...her feet were bare and her matted hair fell in uneven strands over her unwashed shoulders...
...bedraggled Armenian women, half naked and mostly starved, darting nervously among ugly Turks snatching a morsel of food from the shelves and escaping like frightened rabbits...
...on the rail he balanced a pail of fresh paint...
...the priest directed them to approach the altar in the centre aisle and then leave by the side aisles...
...Thus spoke the old patriarch and Paine, though a little nonplused, was also impressed...
...Through the malodorous street we walked, cut through an alley to the church and found the priest there...
...women and little children slept on the floor and the men found refuge in the cellar...
...Yet things ran more smoothly when an American destroyer appeared in the harbor...
...Well, Padre, what sort of a superstitious hold did that priest have on his ignorant flock...
...The woman was dressed in a gunny sack...
...He wore a round biretta that looked like a satin candy box and his cassock was in tatters...
...The United States destroyer squadrons saw bits of it too...
...The Turks carried the screeching woman through the doorway...
...There was tragedy in his look, but no sign of despair, as he approached and bowed...
...The priest knew that the man had made such a decision a few weeks before when he quit his farm rather than accept Mohammed...
...Paine described what took place in the building...
...It must have been his liking for the priest rather than the story that inspired his eloquence...
...He took his job seriously and seemed anxious to show me the work he was required to do among the Samsun refugees...
...He shook like one with a chill...
...Two thousand arrived the day before we dropped anchor...
...Let's go," said Paine, "I've got an idea...
...His was a difficult job but he labored prudently and with great patience...
...Paine's cynical attitude rankled...
...She was terror-stricken...
...Each house we visited had a priest in charge-shepherds in a very special sense...
...Men, women and children crowded into the church...
...It was no longer used as a place of worship...
...Refugees lived there...
...The open shops on the sidewalk...
...Two Turkish soldiers dragged a woman into the room and placed her before Paine's desk...
...Over in a far corner of the building stood an old priest of the Orthodox Church...
...The cross symbolized the only thing of real and lasting value left to him...
...The refugees slunk down the aisle, one by one...
...A few days later Paine came off to the ship for lunch...
...The young man, as he walked down the aisle, found himself arrived at a moment in his life when he must choose between material comfort and sacrilege...
...Paine explained to me that some one had robbed an Armenian woman of the equivalent of $70.00 with which she hoped to buy a passage to Piraeus...
...The Turkish officials were none too generous in their cooperation with the relief worker...
...We sampled soup from steaming pots in the yard...
...Quarrels had to be settled, for where there are large groups of people tottering on the verge of despair, one is apt to find it difficult to keep them amenable to any sort of discipline...
...Also the priest knew how his half-starved flock valued "a pure heart, a good conscience and an unfeigned faith" in Jesus Christ...
...Let's go ashore and we'll ask the good man to tell you what it's all about...
...Give me two sticks of wood and a bucket of paint...
...We inspected the rooms and watched the expressions on the faces of the younger men when Mahmud would translate the admonitions of Paine if conditions appeared less sanitary than was safe...
...The latter laid the cross down, ordered the people to leave the church, and with the culprit he disappeared through the sacristy door...
...He stood still when he got within reach of the paint, trembled and then stepped forward and whispered something into the old priest's ear...
...It was not he himself who exercised this power over the thief...
...Those who were not so fortunate as to die on the mountain roads were driven like cattle to the little town of Samsun where there was food at least, shelter for some and a pasture for the others...
...There were priests among them too...
...I could explain it, Paine," I replied, "but I'd much rather have you get it from the lips of the old man himself...
...I was interrupted by a knocking on the office door...
...For advice he went to the priest whom he employed at the church...
...No, there is no news of the stolen money...
...We hurried down a narrow street because it was nearly ten o'clock, arrived at a frame building and climbed the wooden stairs to the second floor...
...It was hoped that they might be evacuated and safely shipped to Greece...
...You'll see," was Paine's answer...
...This presence of sea power could not, however, alleviate the misery of those who were herded in family groups in the open fields adjoining the shack where Paine had his office...
...We came to a church...
...It were better forgotten...
...Those who were ill were permitted by my friend to lie on the floor of the cool interior but the rest were made to do chores, unless their old age entitled them to bask in the morning sun...
...The other window, behind Paine's desk, give out on a field where the Armenians squatted in family circles...
...The interpreter, a Moslem named Mahmud, came up to us and conveyed in broken English the priest's report of the morning...
...A young Princeton man named Paine was in charge of the refugee barracks...
...Face to face with this reality, the value of the stolen money vanished...
...Ah, here's the culprit, Padre," said Paine...
...Tell her that...
...Mahmud was summoned to interpret for us...
...But I think he was more than glad to know that the rations were no longer under a judicial ban...
...Mahmud...
...At the sanctuary rail the priest stood, holding aloft a crude cross that he had fashioned of the sticks...
...The thought came to me as it had often come before: nature at its loveliest and man at his worst...
...Listen in on this...
...I stood watching one as he strolled in his ragged cassock from one group to the other, patting the children and listening to the woful tales of the old people...
...I could hear her protesting all the way down the stairs...
...She knows who took it...
...Do you think that'll work...
...As we walked down the narrow street I caught a glimpse of the hills which gave the town a crescent frame of faint purple that faded steadily to a rich green as the eye traced its descent to the dusty road and the mosque where the town begins...
...He was a kind-hearted fellow, and the idea of stopping the rations of the refugees was decidedly repugnant to him...
...Although the Armenians had occupied their lands for generations the Turks no longer wanted them...
...Mahmud the Turk was indispensable...
...food exposed in a blazing sun to the feet of hungry flies...
...Paine flicked the ashes from his cigarette and looked across the table at me...
...The door opened...
...Paine escorted me through several compounds where Armenians lived in close congestion...
Vol. 11 • February 1930 • No. 17
