The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-09-06
Bulgarian Horrors.

OF the party. who will write up the visit
for the Dublin FreemGn'S Journal. =
Bulgarian Horrors.
A correspondent OF the London Daily
Ne1cs gives us hideous glimpse OF Batak
after it had been taken and ravaged by the
Turks. He says: @ s
There was not roof left, not whole
wall standing; all was mass Of ruins,
from which arose as we listened low,
plaintive wall, like the "keening" of the
Irish over their dead, that filled the little
valley and gave it voice. We had the ex-
PLANTATION OF this curious sound when we
aiterwardI descended into the village. We
looked again at the heap of skulls and skel-
etons before us, and we observed that they
were all small, and that the articles of cloth
ing intermingled with them and lying about
were all parts of women's apparel. These,
then, were all women and girls. From my
saddle / counted about hundred skulls.
not including those that were hidden be-
meath the others in the CHASTITY heap, or
those that were scattered far and
wide through the fields. The skulls
were nearly all separated from the
rest of the bones, the skeletons were nearly
all headless. These women had all been be-
headed. We descended into the town.
1 Within the shattered walls Of the first house
we came to was woman sitting on heap
Of rubbish. rocking herself to and fro,
wailing 4 kind OF monotonous chant, hall
sung, half sobbed, that was not without a
wild discordant melody. In her lap she
held a babe, and another child sat beside
her patiently and silently, and looked at us
as we passed with wondering eyes. She
paid no attention to us; but we bent our
ear to hear what she was saying, and our
interpreter said it was as follows: "My
home, my home, my poor home, my sweet
home; my husband, my husband, my poor
husband, my dear husband; my home, my
sweet home" and so on, repeating the same
words over and over again a thousand
times. In the next house were two, en-
gagged in the same way-one old, the
other young-repeating words nearly
| identical, 81 had q home and now
I have none; had husband and now
I am widow; had q son and now have
none; I had five children and now have
one" while rocking themselves to and fro,
beating their heads and WringNg their
hands. These were women who had escaped
from the massacre, and had only Just re-
turned for the first time, having taken adj
vantage of our visit, or that Of Mr. Barring,
to do so. They might have returned long
ago, but their terror was so great that they
had not dared without the presence and
protection Of foreigner, and now they
would 60 on for hours in this way "keen-
ing" this kind Of funeral dirge over their
ruined homes. This was the explanation Of
the curious sound we had heard when up
the hill. AS we advanced there were more
and more; some sitting on the heaps OF
stones that covered the floors Of their houses;
hofo Gas
| doors, wringing their hands and repeating
the same despairing wall.
! And now we begin to approach the
church and the school-house. The ground
is covered here with skeletons, to which are
clinging articles Of clothing and bits Of pu-
trid flesh. The air is heavy with faint,
sickening odor that grows stronger as we
advance. It is beginning to be horrible.
The school is on one side Of the road, the
church on the other. The school-house, to
Judge by the walls that are in part standing,
was fine, large building, capable OF accom-
modating 200 or 800 children. Beneath the
stones and rubbish that cover the floor to
the height of several feet are the bones and
ashes OF 200 women and children burned
alive between these four walls. Just be-
side the school-house is a broad, shallow
nit. Here were buried 100 bodies two
weeks after the massacre; but the
dogs uncovered them in part. The
water flowed in, and now it lies there hor-
rid cesspool, with human remains floating
about or lying half exposed in the mud
Near by, on the banks OF the little stream
that runs through the village, is saW-mlll.
| The wheel pit beneath Is full OF dead oodles
| floating in the water. The banks OF this
stream were at one time literally covered
| Of
girls and children, that lay there fostering
| in the sun and eaten by dogs. But the pitt
full sky rained down torrent upon them,
and the little stream swelled and rose up
and carried the bodies away, and strewed
them far down it's grassy banks, through its!
narrow gorges and dark de1iles, beneath the
thick underbrush and the shady woods as
far as Pestere, and even Tatar BaZard-
iik. forty miles distant. We enter
| ed the church-yard, but the odor
here become so bad that it was
almost impossible to proceed. we take
handful of tobacco and hold 1t to our noses
while we continue our investigations. The
church was not very large one, and it was
surrounded by low stone wall, enclosing
| n small church-yard about fifty yards wide
by seventy five long. At first we perceive
nothing in particular, and the stencil is so
great tQaU We SCuICcly W iOoh uS,
| but we see that the, place is heaped up with
stones and rubbish to the height Of five or
six feet above the level OF the street, and
upon inspection we discover that what APP
peared to be a mass Of stones and rubbish
| is IN reality an immense heap Of human bo-
| dies covered over with thin layer Of stones.
The whole of the little church-yard is heaped
M with them to the depth of three OF four
feet, and tits from here that the fearful,
odor comes. Some weeks after the massacre
orders were sent to bury the dead. But the
4 stencil at That time, had become 50 deadly
that it was impossible to execute the order.
or even to remain in the neighborhood OF
[the,yillage. The, men sent TO perform the
work contented themselves with Durylng q,
1 few bodies, throwing Q little EARTH over
others as they lay, and herei in the church.
ward they had .tried;to cover this immense
theap OF fostering humanity by throwing IN
stones and! rubbish over, the walls without
! daring to enter, :; They had, only partially
succeeded. The dogs had been at WORK
there since, and now could be seen project
| ing from the monster grave heads, arms,
4 legs. feet, and hands I'm horrid confusion.
we were told there were three Thousand !
. peopie living here in this little church-yard
alone, and we could well believe it,. It was
4 fearful sisht-a sight to haunt one through
Il :, Tfhasn