He and his wife went to bed that night but not to sleep. At two
o'clock the telephone bell rang.
"The Turks and Kurds are advancing; all the people are leaving," came
the message.
"It is impossible to hold on any longer," said Dr. Shedd to his wife.
"I will go and tell all in the compound. You get things ready."
Mrs. Shedd got up and began to collect what was needed: she packed
up food (bread, tea, sugar, nuts, raisins and so on), a frying pan,
a kettle, a saucepan, water jars, saddles, extra horse-shoes, ropes,
lanterns, a spade and bedding. By 7.30 the baggage wagon and two
Red Cross carts were ready. Dr. Shedd and Mrs. Shedd got up into the
wagon; the driver cried to his horses and they started.
As they went out of the city on the south the Turks and Kurds came
raging in on the north. Within two hours the Turks and Kurds were
crashing into houses and burning them to the ground; but most of
the people had gone--for Dr. Shedd was practically the last to leave
Urumia.
Ahead of them were the Armenians and Syrians in flight. They came to
a little bridge--a mass of sticks with mud thrown over them. Here, and
at every bridge, pandemonium reigned. This is how Mrs. Shedd describes
the scene:
"The jam at every bridge was indescribable confusion.
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