Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1876-10-28
Starvation in Bulgaria,

but the dead are less TO be pltled than
the living. They have been reduced
from ease and comfort to the condition
of wild animals-without home, without
shelter, without bedding, almost without
clothing, and living on what food they
can pick up from day 10 day. There
are women here who have known COM
fort, who are weak and i'll, and who have
three or four little mouths to feed.
They 60 ont in the fields, reap enough
wheat for the days food, painfully thresh
it out with their hands, pound into flour
between two stones, and bake 1t into
bread for ,heir little ones, day by day;
and sleep like the foxes in the corner OF
ruined wall or on little straw at night
There are little children here, haggard
and thin aud sickly, sleeping almost on
the bare ground. and, when it rains, on
the wet ground Nobody who has not
seen it can imagine the misery caused
by the burning of a village.
The authorities has sent some tents
here for the people, which were old and
ragged, capable of sheltering them from
the sun, but not from the rain. But
there was not enough for ALL The
Murdir likewise received little food
now and then which he distributed,
which barely kept those who had no
harvests or other means of existence
from starving But sthere was not
enough, and the supply was uncertain,
and might cease at any moment When
we were starting, the women and chill
dren gathered around us by the hun
dred and blocked up the way. They
showed US thin ragged clothing, and
said:
"See we were rich we had house
and furniture and cattle and sheep, and
these rags are all we have left"
They barred their lean, skinny arms
to show us their fearful emaciation;
they barred their shrunken, shrivelled
breasts, at which lean, haggard, wretch
ed babes were tugging, to show us they
had no milk. God knows, their hollow
cheeks and sunken eyes and despairing
faces were proof enough. They said:
1--WE are starving, our babies are star
ving-starying to death. Can you do
nothing for us
And we could do nothing; nothing
but shed useless tears.
And the Turks of the neighboring
villages, who have taken the horses and
sheep and cattle of these starving wo
men aud children, their clothing and
bedding, and the tiles from their roofs,
come to the village sometimes, and ride
through on the horses they have stolen
looking upon this misery with indiifer-
ent eyes. We saw several here who
had come out of mere curiosity, well
fed, fat, insolent, smiling their contempt
for the starving beings around them.
The Turk is not only without pity, he is
without patriotism. He does not look
upon these people as his neighbors, his
countrymen. He is too ignorant and
stupid to know that in injuriGg them be
is injur;ng himself, that he is attacking
his own country. lie knows no such
thing as country. lie knows only Is
lam. The people of India, the nomadic
tribes Of Central Asia, whom he has
never seen, of whom he has heard once
or twice, perhaps in his life, are nearer
to him than his next door neighbors.
The words country and patriotism,
do not exist in his language. That
these Christians, bis near neighbors, are
his countrymen, that on them as much
as on himself depend the greatness and
prosperity of his country, is fact which
has no place in his mind, which has no
influence on his acts. He knows only
that they form no part of the religion OF
Mohammed and he looks no further
When we left the village hundred
of these women ran after us for mile
with their cries and lamentations. 1t
seems they thought at first we had
come to bring them food or succor OF
some kind, aud when they learned that
we had only come TO make an inquiry
their disappointment was bitter and
overpowering, and they sat down by
the wayside, with their little ones about
them, crying and wringing their hands,
rocking themselves to and fro, and
moaning, rather to themselves than for
US:
"What shall we do' What shall we
do9 We are starving! We are starving!
We are starving to death !"-LondOn
D,,I, Nome