Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1851-04-22
miscellaneous.
FROM BLAcEwooD's EpINBuRG MAGAZINE.
THE F1END'S FESTIVAL.
4 HUNGARIAN MILITARY SKETCH.

1t was dark night in the town of st.
Thomas. Not star was visible, Well was
it that the heavens saw not what then occur
red upon earth.
Men who had grown gray together in
love and friendship, dwelling in the same
street, under the very same roof, who were
bound to each other by ties of blood and
kindred, of gratitude and duty. who were wont
to share each Others joys and griefs began
upon sudden, as if frantic with internal in
SEPARATIONS, to plot each others exter nina
ton, and to fill their souls with bloody ha-
tired against those who had never wronged
them
1t was St. Eustace' day. The Raitzen*
assembled in the church, to worship God, as
they said. But no words of God were there,
nor solemn organ notes; wild voices an
nounced approaching horrors, and the saint
ed roof resounded with strains ominous of
strife.
The towns people were tranquil Those
amongst them who noticed that their neigh
bors' windows were lighted up, and who saw
gloomy faces hurrying to the church, said to
themselves To-day the Raitzen hold high
festival and thought no more Of 1t, but
went their ways to beds. Towards midnight
the alarm bell sounded, the doors of the
temple opened. and the nocturnal revel be-
gan.
With wild howl the excited mob burst
into the houses Of their sleeping neighbors.
1t was as though they had some ancient and
inveterate grudge to avenge, so fierce and
bitter was the fury with which they murder
ed all whose windows showed no lights the
token the RaitEens had adopted, lest by err
ror they should assail each others dwellings.
In two hours the Magyar population Of
the town was exterminated with the excep-
ton of scanty few who had escaped in
carts and carriages. These, however, were
pursued, and when the uproar in the town,
the sounds of strife and lamentation, and
the clang of bells, we're hushcd, cries of ago.
ny and despair were still heard, issuing at
| intervals from the adjacent country, as yehi
cles stuck fast in the trencherous swamps
were overtaken, and the luckless fugitives
ruthessly butchered. At last these heart
rending sounds also ceased. Voices of CON-
plant were no lorger audible, but in then
stead, in more than one quarter Of the illu-
minated town, were heard music, and dane
ing, and merriment,
1t was long past midnight when a cart
drove through the streets of st. Thomas
In it sat a man wrapped in his cloak, mar
yelling greatly at the lights in the houses
and the sounds Of festiyity and joy. At bis
| -
*The name of Raitzen is synonymous with Serb.
| "Arsonus Czernojewie, under Leopold, l., trans
planted large number of Serbs from the ancient
Racia to Hungary. Hence the name Razen, Rae
zen, Raitzen.
aThe Serbs first aimed the ponard at their Ger
man and Magyar neighbors. Isolated scenes
of murder, perpetrated by the Serbs against thu
Magyars and Germans, who inhabit that district
| tthe Bacska or country of BAGS, between the Dan
ube and the Theiss,) led the way to series Of san.
culinary atrocities, such as age had hoped Il
| never see repeated. The commencement of hos
tilities is due to the Sclavo- Walachian race old
long-restrained hate, combined with an innate
thirst for blood, marked the rising of the South
Selavonan races from the first as one of the blood
lest character in which murder was both mean.
and end No revolution of modern times--tht
great French Revolution not ercepted-is black.
ened with such horrible atrocities as this the
details may be found in the Serbian and Magyar
journals; and one would faiu have hoped that
the accounts on both sides were exaggerated
unhappily, such hope is illusory nor can the
historian indulge it without classifying the truth
Deeds have been perpetrated which call to mind
the Hurons and Makis Of the American forests
Like them, the Serbs were masters in the art o.
torture aud murder, like them, they make Their
unhappy victims previously undergo all the dread
full steps of torment prolongng the transition
from life to death with refinement Of cruelty
like them they Wanted the deeds of horror, and
honored their exeeutioners as heroes. .Suct
unheard ofattrocities inevitably called forth re
taliation Magyars and Germans became sava
ges p--SeHLEIsGER Pulsky's edition J. 22-25