The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1876-09-27

Ses
These reunions last several days, for
it is the villagers furthest off that re-
ceive the notice last and who have the
greatest distance to make. These latter,
on arriving at the town of meeting, find
the others gorged with booty, and, lrri-
tated by jealousy, attack tho Christians
in the streets, where they arc supposed
to be protected. Among these bandits
the brayest or most brutal are the Cir
cassians. The others wear the red
blouse and OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES 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 despatched with blood
from the bodies of their victims. A
Greek vest fitted close around the body
and a handkerchief tied around the head
completes the dress. They wear moth
ing around the neck, 1t would seem
that they are const unity in expectation
of being hung. Everything they have
on is filthy, repugnant, hideous. Such
are the men who, according to Turkish
newspapers, %"leave their hearth and
home" to rob Sin defense of their
country" .
I have said that 1000 regular trained
troops, which have not been sent, would
have been more effective, but 10000
Bashi-B azougs have been sent instead.
They will assassinate more than 80, 1000
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 n OF these
Peroutchitza-the history OF which |
will give. According to the estimate of
disinterested persons and European
officials, this is the hundred and twenty
first, and this may eve oe considered
as beneath the number. Peroutchitza
is situated to the left of the railroad be-
tween Philippopoli and Pazardschyk,
midway between these two places, and
5000 or 5000 yards from the railroad.
It was a Christian village of $50 houses
and having more than 1000 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 mobiles
who were saved in time arrived ct
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 interviewed and
addressed themselves to an aide. de-camp
of the sultan sent from Constantinople
to report the true state of things. They
obtained a promise of help, which was
reduced to the sending of a commission
of Cancellation. The commission did
not even 60 into the village, which the
assailants wanted disarmed, to begin
with.
This, in effect, was the way the Bashi-
Bazouks operated They presented
themselves before a 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 lever been armed,
and which, consequently had no arms to
deliver-a fact well Known to the MUIR
derers-were treated in just the manner
I 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 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 IN
fortunate people held together, though
at this point they were willing to parley.
At length, completely o~utnumbered,
they consented to surrender. The first
to leave the church were shot down in
cold blood the instant they showed
themselves; they then co~mprehended
that the attack was made with but one
object, namely, a general determination,
and they resolved to stand out to the
last. Thus, in a word, there now re-
mains of this village absolutely nothing
of the $50 houses-nothing, nothing,
nothing. ] defy any Il to find any
other trace than q portion of the church,
whose four walls are riddled with bull
lets, and q piece of another wall q few
feet in height. The only object remain
ing inside the church was the half of O
painting representing St. Paul, all that
remains of a township which paid $780,
600 francs a 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
which cover all that was dear to them.
Not O strong man is left, not G woman.
All these have been slain, and all those
who escaped the massacre have been car
ried away into slavery to the other side
of the Salkaus, where they will be SUBJ
jected to the Pomacs, renegade Chris
tians, still more ferocious than the Mus.
sulmans themselves, and who are always
on the raid. The abandoned children
who strayed into the country have been
caught and sold at an average rate Of
fifty piasters each-a little less than So
the little girls, at least those who were
pretty, sent to Constantinople and
placed upon those secret markets for
such bargains which always exist. They
will be scattered among the harems,
where the ladies always have little girls
which they raise to sell when they be-
come of age. These are their little
perquisites. You will understand that
the slave dealers are Expected from
Mecca rumor now being in circula'
ton that the sale of women is about to
be recommended.
It will be seen that the old Turk is just
as low as the moment after the conquest;
indeed, these people have not advanced
one step morally, and some of the re-
cent events have destroyed all that Eu-
ropean civilization has been able to
achieve in fifty years upon this essenti-
ally brutal population. Ore hundred
and twenty-one villages burned, women
violated and children hacked TO pieces.
The Bashi- Bazouks take the latter by an
arm or a leg, give them one terrible cut
with their knives and then pass on to
the next. Those considered most adroit
in this bloody work cut the little ones
in two across the waist at a blow. A
priest told me that some few days pre-
vious, while he was crossing a ford, one
of these half bodies injured the legs of
his horse. One priest was crucifed,
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