The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1876-10-25
STARVATION IN BULGARIA.
Another Startling Picture of tho Horrors
of Wsr---Tho Utter Heartlennoas Of the
all

Another Startling Picture OF tho Horrors
of Wsr---Tho Utter Heartlenneas Of the
Turks.
But the dead are less to be pitied
than the living, says London NeDs
correspondent writing from Bulgaria.
They have been reduced from ease and
comfort to the condition of wild ami
mails without home, without shelter,
without bedding, almost without CLOTH
ing, and living on what food they can
pick up from day to day. There are
women here who have known comfort,
who are weak and i'll, and who have
three or four little mouths to feed. They
60 out in the fields, reap enough wheat
for the days food, painfully thrash it
out with their hands, pound it into
-four between two stones, and bake it
into bread for their little ones day by
day; and sleep, like the foxes, in the
corner of ruined wall on little straw
at night. There are little children here,
haggard and thin and sickiy, sleeping al
most 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 village.
The authorities had sent some tents
here for the people, which were old and
ragged, capable of sheltering them from
the sun, but not from tho rain. But
there was not enough for all. The mu-
dir likewise received a little food now
and then, which he distributed, which
barely kept those who had no harvests
or other means of existence from starv-
ing. But there was not enough, and the
supply was uncertain and might cease at
any moment. When we were starting,
the women and children gathered around
us by the hundred, 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,
shriveled breasts, at which lean, hag-
gard, wretched babes were tugging, to
show US they had no milk. God knows,
their hollow cheeks and smken eyes
and despairing faces were proof enough.
They said: "We are starving; our
babes are notwithstanding to death.
Gan you do nothing for us7" 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 tuese starving women
and children, their clothing and be lding,
and the tiles from their roofs, come to
the village sometimes, and ride through
on the horse they have stolen, looking
upon this misery with Indifferent eyes.
We saw several here who had come out
of mere curiosity, we'll fed, fat, insolent,
smiling their contempt for the starving
beings around them. The Turk is not
only without pity, he is without patriot
ism. He does not look upon these peo-
pie as his neighbors, his courtrymen.
He is too ignorant and stupid to know
that in injuring them he is injuring him
self, that he il attacking his own coun-
try. He knows no such thing as coun-
try. He knows only Islam. 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,
patriotism, do not exist in bis language.
That these Christians, his near neigh
bors, are his countrymen, that on them
as much as on himself depends the great
ness and prosperity of his country, is a
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 be looks no
further.
When we left the village hundred of
these women ran after us for nile ewiSh
their cries and lamentations. II seems
they thought at first we bad come to
bring them food or succor of some kind,
and when they learned tbat We had only
come to make an inquiry their disap-
pointment was bitter and overpowering,
and they sat down by the wayside, with
their little ones about them, crying and
wringipg their hands, rocking themselves
to and fro, and moaning, rather to them-
selves than for us: "What shall We do9
What shall we do2 We are starving !
We are starving! We are starving to
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