Uprising in Prison, Damascus

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On Wednesday, May 16th, 1894, the artist and one of the editors had just returned from a carriage drive to Dummar in the environs of Damascus. We were at dinner with fifteen or twenty French capitalists from Paris, in Syria at the time in the interest of their railroad from Beyrout to Damascus. Suddenly conversation ceased as we heard an awful and unearthly noise in front of the hotel. At once we all rushed to the front veranda in the second story of the Victoria Hotel. The public square in front was filled with people, and from the opening in the center of the city prison brickbats were being hurled, and from the top soldiers were shooting at the prisoners within. I had never before seen one man fire a gun at another. The multitudinous roar that came up from the five hundred prisoners within seemed to be an expression of despair, starvation, and utter wretchedness. It was horrible; several were already killed and others were wounded. After an hour of fearful suspense, the mutiny was quelled. The artist, always anxious to secure representations of strange scenes, had his camera hoisted upon the tripod almost instantly and was photographing the scene. One of the Frenchmen happened to observe him, and with the most violent and blood-curdling gestures informed him that if he was seen taking a photograph by the Turkish officers he would be in the prison himself in five minutes. It is needless to say the camera was soon lowered and put out of sight. We had secured two or three pictures, however, before the peril of the enterprise was recognized by the artist.