Uprising in Prison, Damascus
Uprising in Prison, Damascus 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 ...