The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1876-08-25
The War i'm the East.
From the Cincinnati Commercial. 7

From the Cincinnati Commercial !
Servia is far away. Politically and |
commercially, it is ont of the range of !
American interest. and sympathies-
Very little is known about the country
or its people by the mass of our people, |
and there has not been any good reason
for making a study Of them. The strange
and unpronounceable nomenclature of
the cities and towns, the mountains and
rivers, and the not less foreign and diff
cult names of the commanders of armies
and the political leaders, together with
the confused and conflicting reports of
operations in the field, tend to discour-
age the persuit of knowledge in that di-
rection. Those who read history will
recall Belgrade and the sieges it has en-
dured. 1t was the bulwark against
which the great wave of Moslem con-
quest rushing northward broke and was
shattered. They remember Belgrade on
the Danube, but of the towns and cities
in the interior and in the Turkish prov
inces of Bulgaria, Roumalia and Rou-
mania very little is known.
Since the commencement of the war
in this far-away country-a war growing
out of the insurrection in the Herzegov.
ina ard Bosnia, in which Montenegro
and Servia are now involved-it has
been watched with speculative interest
for its effect upon the politics of West
ern Europe. Would it drag in Austria
and Russia and eventuate in a general
European War? We presume most of
our readers who have given attention to
the subject have more closely scrutiniz-
ed what has been said and done at St.
Petersburg, at Vienna and at Berlin
than what has been done in Servia itself
For the Immediate canse of the war be-
tween Servia and the Porte, and the mis-
government ofthe Turks which resulted
in a revolt of the Christian subjects OF
the Porte, they had very little concern,
and are not now particular to study the
causes
But Servia and Bulgaria are not so fal
away as to be outside the circle of hu.
manity. We can not be Indifferent when
we read the accounts supplied by the
correspondents of the London newspa.
pers of the awful atrocities of the irreg
ular troops which the Porte has sum.
moned from the widest parts of Asia
Minor to overrun the disturbed provin
ces, and who leave nothing but the ashes
; of desolation behind them, and the evi
dences of barbaritIes unparalleled in The
annals Of history, crimson as its pages
are with stories of mans inhumanity.- -
We question whether any of the pic
lures of the desolating wars Of the mid
die ages will match that drawn by cor
, respondent of the London Ners of wha
he saw in the town of Batok, one of tho
many villages in Bulgaria ravaged b,
, the dogs of war let loose upon the inhab
| iehht' W ASHIheu hSa, DOW lH0 NfONeTn
5 or of the District. The correspondent
accompanied the English Commissioner
,, , appointed to investigate and report npor
the atrocities committed in Bulgaria. -
We published, yesterday, an extrac
from the correspondents letter, whicl
t was dated at Philippoppolis, on the 12tl
of July. The town of Batok was desc
. lated on the 18th Of May. 1t was then
q place of some 5000 inhabitants. Bu
E 1900 survive its ruin. The correspond
: ent tells us what he saw while ridin
through the deserted place. In tn
r church-yard three thousand corpses fest
Z ering in the sun; in the church the foo
: covered with rotting bodies; in tn
d streets and fields, and on the banks Of tn
q little stream running through the tow
: the skeletons of men, women and Chi
d dren, from which the famshed dogs ha
picked the flesh. The harvests wer
rottiDg in the fields, there being non
left TO gather what had been sown, an