The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1876-09-14
TURKISH

The uah of the Innocents-Thou.
sands OF People BrutslIy Mastered
Women ana children Burned 20 Death
The Most Horrible story OF the Nine.
tesnth Century.
The London Ne,Ds of August 22 prints
q long letter from its special cor.
respondent in the East, Mr.. MacGahan,
who, accompanied by Mr.. Schuyler, the
United States Minister to Constantine.
pie, was some time engaged in ~investi.
eating the Turkish atrocities in Bulpa.
ria. Mr.. MacGahan writes from Tatar
Bazardjik, August 2, as follows:
Since my letter Of yesterday have
supped full of horrors. Nothing has
yet been said of the Turks that l do not
now believe; nothing could be said of
them that l should not think probable
and likely. There is, it would seem, a
point in atrocity beyond which discrim.
nation is impossible, when nero com.
parison, calculation, measurement, are
out OF the question, and this point the
Turks have already passed. You can
follow them no further. The way is
blocked up by mountains Of hidcous
facts that repel scrutiny and invcstiga-
ton, over and beyond which you can
not see and do not care to 90. You
feel that 1t is superlluous to continue
measuring these mountains and decid-
ing whether they be n few feet higher
or lower, and you do not care to 90
seeking for molehills among them.
You fe,l that it is time to turn back
that you have seen enough. . . .
Down in the bottom of one of these hol-
lows we could make out q village, which
Il guide informed us il would
take us an hour and n half to reach, al-
though it seemed TO be very near. This
was the village OF Batak, which we
were in search of. The hillsides were
covered with little fields of wheat and
rye that were golden with ripeness.
But although the harvest was ripe, and
over ripe, although in many places the
well filled ears had broken the fast-do.
caying straw that could no longer hold
them aloft, and were now lying flat.
there was no sign of rcapcrs trying to
save them. The fields were as deserted
us the little valley, and the harvest was
rotting in the soil. In an hour we had
neared the village. AS we approached
our attention was directed to some dogs
on q slope overlooking the town. We
turned aside from the road, and pass
ing over the debris of two or three
walls and through several gardens,
urged our horses up the ascent towards
the dogs. They barked at us in an an
CRY manner, and then ran off into the
adjoining fields. l observed nothing
peculiar as we mounted until my horse
stumbled. When looking down l per-
ceived he had stepped on n human
skull partly hid among the grass. 1t
was quite dry and hard, and might to
all appearances have been there for
two or three years, so we'll had the dogs
done their work. A few steps further
there was another, and beside it a part
of Il skeleton, likwisc white and dry.
As we assembled
BONES, SKELETONS, AMI SKULLS
became mor frequent, but here they
had not been picked SO clean, for there
were fragments of half-dry, half-putrid
flesh still clinging to them. At last we
came to Il kind of little plateau or shelf
on the hillside, where the ground was
nearly level, with the exception of a
little indentation where the head of a
hollow broke through. We rode toward
this, with the intention of crossing it,,
but all suddenly drew rein with an ex-
clamation of horror, for right before
us, almost beneath our horses feet,
was II sight that made us shudder. 1t
was q heap of skulls, intermingled with
bones from all parts of the human body,
skeletons nearly entire, rotting cloth
ing, human hair and putrid flesh, lying
there in II foul heap, arouI.d which
the grass was growing luXuriantly. 1t
emitted q sickening ordor, like that of
a dead horse, and it was here the dogs
had been seeking a hasty repast when
our untimely approach interrupted
them. In the midst Of this heap I could
distinguish one slight skeleton form
still enclosed in "A chemise, the skull
wrapped about with n colored handker-
chief, and the bony ankles encased in
the embroidered footless stockings worn
by the Bulgarian girls. We looked
about us. The ground was strowed
with bones in every direction, where
the dogs had carried them off to gnaw
them at their leisure. At the distance
of 100 yards beneath us lay the town.
AS seen from our standpoint, it remind
ed n somewhat of the ruins of
HERCULANEUM OR PoMpEII.
There was not q riof left, not n whole
wall all was a mass of ruins, from
which arose, as we listened, Il low,
%plaintive wall, like the ''keening" of
the Irish over their dead, that filled the
little valley and gave it voice. We had
the explanation of this curious sound
when we afterward descended into the
village. We looked again at the heap
of skulls and skeletons before US, and
we observed that they were all small,
and that the articles OF clothing inter-
mingled with them and lying about
were all parts of women's apparel.
These, then, were all women and girls.
From my saddle l counted about 100
skulls, not including those that were
hidden beneath the others in the ghast-
ly heap, nor 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 beheaded. We descended into
the town. Within the shattered walls
e