Connecticut western news., 1876-09-01

top of my wagon in the vicinity of the
 Turkish villages, and when leaving their
 work they must go home with their faces
 yelled. While the women work the
 men sit at the door of their cabins
 smoking the excellent tobacco which
 their country affor>ls. This is kept up
 during the element portion of the year,
 and during the winter the women work Tn the barns and farmhouses. There
 comes call (" to arms," and everything changes face.
 Immediately an old flag is brought out from the mosque, borne by fel- low who, in view of some past exploits,
 bears the title of chief, accompanied by priests reciting short verses of the Koran, the religious sentiments of which are "Down with the infdel," and the real meaning an indictment to plunder and destruction. The village is at once full of life and activity. Old guns are refurbished; the old flintlocks are re- paired and reftted; the broad blades of their knives are cleaned and sharpened; women and children all take a hand at the work. They are thinking of the spells, and the great thing is to be ready first. It is also & question of staying the giaours, for he who shall shed the most blood will be able to aspire to the
 first place or chieftainship of the viii lage. Vanity governs amid savages, it seems, as 1t does amid the civilized. The same day the sub prefect, or Kai- makam, makes his appeal to these patriotic @ souls, every available man is en route for the place named for the men of the different villages to meet, followed by old men and children, the former going to teach the young how to torture the wounded and set fire to vacated dwellings.
 These reunions last several days, for it is the villagers furthest off that re- ceive the notice last and who have tho greatest distance to make. These latter, on arriving at the town of meeting, find the others gorged with booty, and, irri- tated by jealousy, attack the Christians in the streets, where they are supposed to be protected. Among these bandits the bravest or most brutal are the Cir cassians. The others wear the red blouse and spatterdash-shoest they take from the peasants-the belt is filled with long knives and long barreled pistols, and their linen, when they have any, is always bespattered with blood from the bodies of their victims. A Greek vest fitted close around the body and handkerchief tied around the head completes the dress. They wear noth- ing around the neck. It would seem that they are const antly in expectation of being hung. Everything they have on is filthy, repugnant, hideous. Such are the men who, accordiDgto Turkish newspapers, "leave their hearth and home" to rob Gin defense of their country"
 have said that 1000 regular trained troops, which have not been sent, would have been more effective, but 10000 Bashi-BazouKs have been sent instead. They will assassinate more than 30, 900 persons. The fear inspired by the au- thorities before an attack on some of the Christian villages caused them to abandon everything. A hundred and twenty-one villages were burned. I went by chance to look at one of these Peroutchitza-the history of which I will give. According to the estimate of disinterested persons and European officials, this is the hundred and twenty first, and this may even be considered as beneath the number. Peroutchitza is situated to the left of the railroad be- tween PhilippopoH and Pazardschyk, midway between these two places, and 5000 or 5000 yards from the railroad. It was Christian village of $50 houses and having more than 2.000 inhabitants, planted, as it were, between several Turkish boroughs as poor by their idle ness as Peroutchitza was rich by its labor. The instant the call was made for volunteers Peroutchitza was shut in between all its neighbors. The nobles who were saved in time arrived at Philippopoli, where they demanded aid more loudly than any one of their fellow citizens, saying they had nothing to do with the instruction. The governor replied to the effect that he would think about it. The consuls intervened and addressed themselves to an aide -de-camp of the sultan sent from Constantinople to report the true state of things. They obtained promise of help, which was reduced to the sending of commission of conciliation. The commission did not even go into the village, which the assailants wanted disarnled, to begin with.
 This, in effect, was the way the Bashi Bazouks operated: They presented themselves before Christian village, and, according to the "order of au- thority," required complete disarma- ment. After this order was Obeyed a massacre of the men so disarmed was begun. In case the villagers refused to hand over their guns, etc., their village was immediately set on fire. Several villages which had never been armed, and which; consequently had no arms to deliver-a fact we'll k1 own to the mur- derers-were treated in just tho manner l have indicated. The people of Perout- chitza answered that they would deliver their arms to soldiers of the regular army, but not to the Bashi- Bazouks. Then the attack commenced by firing the village at the four corners. The fight lasted four hours, and the inhabit- ants, surrounded by fire, took refuge in one of the two churches. The " au- thority" then sent cannon, but the un- fortunate people held together, though at this point they were willing to barley. At length, completely outnumbered, they consented to surrender. The first to leave the church were shot down in cold blood the instant they showed themselves; they then comprehended that the attack was made with but one object, namely, general extermination, and they resolved to stand out to the last. Thus, in word, there now re- mains of this village absolutely nothing of the $50 houses-nothing, nothing, nothing. I defy any one to find any other trace than portion of the church, whose four walls are riddled with bull lets, and a piece of another wall few feet in height. The only object remain ing inside the church was the half of painting representing St. Paul, all that remains of township which paid 500,- 900 francs year for duties.
 And as to the population of over two thousand persons, they are now reduced to one hundred and fifty old people and children, who mourn among the ruins