The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-10-28 00:00:00

CAMP NOTES FROM DELIGRAD.

The following are extracts from the let,er of the Daily
News' Special Correspondent with the Servian army :

During the last few days I have been a good deal
away from headquarters, and living "all around" with
regimental offisers ; an experience which has given me
a closer insight into the camp life of the Servian
soldiers than it was possible to obtain while in residence
in a " cave " in the head-quarter camp, having for
comrades three or four Russian colonels and a
couple of Russian gallopers. It is a pity that the
Servian soldier does not take to fighting more
naturally. There are the makings of a soldier in him,
with care, training, and the practical discipline
of the battle-field; but the fighting instinct
does not naturally glow warmly in his bosom;
and with him the ' funk " of his first cannon-shot
lasts over a good many cannon shots. He is a first-
rate campaigner; ingenious, patient, hardy, and con-
tent. The nights in the upper Morava Valley are now
bitterly cold, there is a keen frost, and even inside a
'cave," with a fire burning all night, one is glad of a
double blanket. But the Servian soldiers lie about
their camp fires in their greatcoats, for few of them
have as yet either blankets or the sheepskin winter
clothing which is in the slow process of being served
out; and after a turn up and down to chase the frost
out of their bones, are not a pin the worse for the
exposure. How it would be were they badly rationed
I do not know; but the Servian army is well
and as regularly fed as any army I ever saw
in the field. . . . The transport difficulty is of
course minimised in a csuntry, where horse-wag-,
gons abound and ox-waggons swarm, and where every
man cheerfully gives the services of himself and his
team without dreaming of grumbling, far less of re-
muneration. The meat travels to the front on its own
legs, arriving in great droves of not over-fat cattle, and
huge herds of sheep in excellent condition. Meat is
so cheap and plentiful that it is a waste of time stand-
ing on precise nicety of weight. In the rear of the
positions at various points there are immense field
batteries and provision magazines; and to these the
battalion waggons go twice a week for their supplies,
the waggons themselves in most cases serving as the
depots for the daily issues. The butchering goes on
perpetually. and of course nearer to the front, for in
a climate like that of Servia meat, especially when
being conveyed in an open country waggon, will not
keep good long. The men generally club their meat
rations, excepting the bread; arranging themselves
in messes, the s,zs of which depends chiefly on the
dimensions of the big camp kettle in which the
paprika soup—we should call it stew—is made. This
pot simmers from early morn till noon, when the one
"square meal" of the day is eaten. Coffee is taken as
often as the coffee ration, eupplemented by private
purchases, will admit of. In his private purchases
the Servian soldier must depend entirely on his
own resources. There is no occasion for a pay-
master in the militia battalions, seeing that
the national milida, of which the great mass of
the army consists, draw no pay at all; their
rewards are patriotism, rations, and uniform. The
half-dozen regular battalions are paid at the rate of
something under six francs per month per private; but
Ido not believe even they ate paid in war time. On
the simplicity of the arrangement under which nobody
is paid anything it is unnecessary to enlarge; nor does
one hear any complaints ss to its operation. There is
a great deal of money, and more of money's worth,
among the people of Servia, where poverty is a thing
utterly unknown. When a man is in the field, whether
as a soldier or in the commissariat work, his family
"live on their means." If their means are exhausted,
they receive rations from the State—that is, from the
local authority; but one hears of few instances of appli-
cation for relief of this kind. The peasants and villagers,
I fancy from what I have -seen' help each other in
a fine loyal way, and do not think a great deal of to-
morrow. Of course State relief is given when applied
for to the unfortunate fugitives from the territory
which the Turks have laid waste : but even among
them there are comparatively few applicants. A
group of women and children besiege every morning
the door of the provision magazine in Rashan, wait-
ing for the ration of bread which the police chief issues
to all who satisfy him of their need; but the mass
of the fugitives are camped in the woods far away from
any police chief, and live as well as they can on
their own resources. I have wandered away from
soldiers' rations to fugitives, and, having reached
the latter subject, I may as well tell you what I have
noticed of the plight of these unfortunates. In the
most part they have built over them some kind of
shelter, leaves and maize-stalks on a frame-work of
branches, and you may see the baby swinging in its
cradle hammock in the wide doorway of such a wig-
wam, while the mother sits by the fire outside, spinning
and tending the pot. But alt4?ugh in the present fine
weather this gipsy life has not in it much hardship, its
evils are apparent at a glance—evils both physical and
moral. Already there has been much illness among
the children—during the cold wet weather which
preceded the present "Indian summer," they died
like flies; and the village priests had no respite
from the funeral services over the children corpses
in the little blue coffins. One shudders to think of the
misery which from the commencement of the rains, in
the beginning of Noverrber, speedily followed by the
frost and snow of the inclement Servian winter, will be
the lot of these poor creatures. A little is being done
for them by some good people of Manchester 4 who have
sent out a German medical man with a few hundred
pounds, which he may expend at discretion; and I believe
that Dr. Ziemann has every desire to carry into effect the
benevolent designs of his constituents. But there have
been delays, sad delays, always dangerous, are at this ad-
vanced season of the year especially so. But really such
aid as it is in Dr. Ziemen'a power to give, is but a drop
in the bucket; he may house and feed a few score of
famdies, but every clump of trees between Deligrad
and Bayrdan has its colony of houseless fugitives.
There is much truly charitable work to be done for the
succour of these miserables •, but to be efficient the aid
must be prompt. The children are taking to begging
oit the roadside, running after carriages, and shouting
a parrot-cry of which "Breed I" is the burden; and
the deterioration is not confined to the children. . . .