Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1876-09-27
Horrible Turkish Atrocities at Ratak

THE special correspondent of the
London Daily Ne,cs gives the follow
ing account of the horrible atrocities
of the Turks at Batak, in Bulgaria:
las we approached, our attention
was directed to some dogs on slope
overlooking the town. We turned
aside from the road and, passing over
the debris of two or three walls and
through several gardens, urged our
horses up the ascent toward the dogs.
They barked at us in an angry manner
and then ran off into the adjoining
fields. l observed nothing peculiar as
we mounted. until my horse stumbled.
when, looking down, perceived he
had stepped on human skull, partly
hid among the grass. 1t was quite dry
and hard, and might, to all appear
ances have been there for two or three
years. so we'll had the dogs done their
work. 4 few steps further there was
another. and beside it part of skel-
eton. likewise white and dry. AS we
assembled, bones, skeletons and skulls
became more 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 a 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 inten-
tion of crossing it, but all suddenly
drew rein with an exclamation of hor-
ror, for right before us, almost beneath
our horses feet, was a sight that made
us shudder. 1t was a heap of skulls,
intermingled with bones from all parts
of the human body, skeletons nearly
entire rotting, clothing, human hair
and putrid flesh lying there in one foul
heap, around which the grass was
growing luxuriantly. 1t emitted
sickening odor, like that of dead
horse, and it was here that the dogs had
been seeking a haSty repaSt when our
untimely approach interrupted them.
:" In the midst of this heap ! could
distinguish one Slight skeleton form
still enclosed in a chemise, the skull
wrapped about with a colored hand
kerchief. and the bony ankles encased
in the embroidered footless stockings
worn by the Bulgarian girls. We
looked about us. The ground was
strewed 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 towns AS seen from our stand
point, itreminded one somewhat of the
ruins of Herculaneum or Pompeii.
There was not a roof left. not a whole
wall standing: all was mass of ruins
from which arose as we listened a low
plaintive wall like the 'keening' of
the Irish over their dead, that filled
the little valley and gave it voice.
1--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 intermln-
gled with them and lying about We're
all parts of women's apparel. These
then, were all women and girls. From
my saddle | counted about 100 skulls.
not including those that were hidden
beneath the others in the CHASTITY 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."