Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-09-20

wv iC"uoIuO dIlu partly covered WIN
the debris of a fallen wall. It was still
clothed in a chemise; the ankles were
enclosed in footless stockings; but the
little feet, from which the shoes had
been taken, were naked, and, owing to
the fact that the flesh had dried in
stead OF decomposing, were nearly per-
feet. There was a. large cash in the
; skull, to which a mass of rich brown
hair nearly yard long still chung, and
trailed IN the dust. 1t is to be remark
ed that all the skeletons of women here
found were dressed in chemise only,
and this poor girl had evidently been
stripped to her chemise, partly in the
search TOR money and jewels, partly
out OF mere brutality, then outraged
and killed. We have talked with many
women who had passed through every
part OF the ordeal but the last, and the
procedure seems to have been as fol-
lows: They would seize woman, strip
her carefully to her chenise, laying by
articles OF clothing that were valuable,
with any ornaments and Jewels she
might have about her. Then as MANY
of them as could would violate her. and
the last man would kill her or not. as
the humor took him.
At the next house a man stopped us
to show where blind little brother had
been burnt alive, and the spot where
he had found the calcined bones, and
the rough, hard-visaged man sat down
and sobbed like child.
On the other side of the Nay were
the skeletons of two children lying side
! NV do ort1u 4
with frightful sabre cuts in their little
skulls. The number of children killed
in these massacres is something, enor-
NOUS. They were often spitted on
bayonets, and we have several stories
from eye witnesses who saw little babes
carried about the streets, both here and
at Olluk-kui, on the point of bayonets.
The reason is simple. When Moham-
medan has killed certain mum Der of
infdels he is sure of Paradise, no mat
ter what his sins may be. Mahomet
probably intended that only armed men
should count, but the ordinary MussuI-
man takes the precept in its broader
acceptation and counts women and
children as we'll. The advantage of
killing children is that it can be done
without danger and that child counts
for as much as an armed man. Here
in Batak the Bashibazouks, in order to
swell the count, ripped open pregnant
women and killed the unborn infants
AS we approached the middle of the
town, bones, skeletons and skulls be-
came more numerous. There was not
a house beneath the ruins of which we
did not perceive human remains and
the street beside was strewn with them.
Before many of the doorways women
were walking up and down wailing
their funeral chant. One of them
caught me by the arm and led me in
side Of tne walls, and there in one cor
ner, half covered with stones and NOR
tar, were the remains of another young
girl, and her long hair flowing wildly
about among the stones and dust. And
the mother fairly shrieked with agony
and beat her head madly against the
wall. A few steps further on sat wo-
man on a doorstep, rocking herself to
and fro, and uttering means heartrend-
| ing beyond anything I could have I'M
agined Her head was buried IN her
hands, while her fingers were uncon-
sciously twisting and tearing her hair
as she gazed into her lap, where lay
three little skulls, with the hair still
clinging to them.
| And now we begin to approach the
! church and the schoolhouse. The
ground is covered here with, skeletons,
| to which are clinging articles of cloth
ing and bits of putrid 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 ether. The schoolhosse. to
judge by the walls that are in part stand
ing, was a fine, large building, capable
of accommodating 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 wo-
man and children burned alive between
these four walls. Just beside the school
house is a broad, shallow pit. Here
were buried 100 bodies two weeks after
the massacre. But the dogs uncover
ed them in part. The water flowed in,
and now it lies there horrid 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 a saw
mill. The wheel pit beneath is full of
dead bodies floating in the water. The
! banks of this stream were at one time
literally covered with corpses of men
and women, young girls and children,
that lay there fostering in the sun, and
eaten by dogs. But the pitiful sky
rained down torrent upon them, and
the little stream swelled and rose up
and carried the bodies away, and strew-
ed them far down its grassy banks,
through its narrow gorges and dark de-
files beneath the thick underbrush and
the shady woods as far as pestera, and
even Tatar Bazardjik, forty miles dis
tant. We entered the churchyard, but
the odor here became SO bad that it
was almost impossible to proceed. We
take handful Of tobacco and hold it
to our noses while we continue our in
vestigations. The church was not a
very large one, and it was surrounded
by low stone wall, enclosing small
churcbyard about fifty yards wide by
I