The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-09-20

o,OOU were killed IN This place. alone.
about 400 Of whom were inhabitants
of the town, and the rest from the
neighboring villages, who had taken
refuge here. But we were not greeted
here with the scenes of horror that
aWaitedsus at Batak. Hafiz Pacha, sun-
like Achmet Agha, had sense enough
TO have the bodies buried within the
following three days, and thus to Gov
ersup his tracks, tE&& a#& s@hE
IT has been repeated again and again
that these acts were perpetrated by
the Bashi- Bazouks only, and not by the
regular troops, and q great deal is
made of the statement as showing the
massacres were committed without the
consent Of the authorities. If the
statement were worth anything the
converse ought to be true--that if the
nassacres were committed by the reg.
ular troops then the authorities are IT.
responsible. Now, as it happens,
wherever there were any regular
troops to commit massacres they RI
vailed the Bashi-Bazouks in atrocity.
HeAe, as Mr.. Schuyler will show in his
report, regular and Irregular troops
were equally cruel, pitiless, and Zero
cious, and Ha6z Pacha is no less guilty
than Acilmet Agha: The reason is
simple. They are all Turks alike and
there is nothing to choose between
them. !
These E2asSacIeS were committed by
the order Of the authorities, and that
is why the men who committed them
have been rewarded with decorations
and promotions.
When We were in Panagurishti we
were shown in the ruins of the church,
before where had stood the alter, a
black spot spec]Aed with calcined bones,
on which lay q boquet Of flowers.
This WIS the remains OF priest,
Theodor PeoT, IS years OF age, who
had been seized and tortured in the
hopes OF obtaining money, jnutilated
and maltreated in ways which only the
foul imagination of a Turk could in
vent, then killed and burnt before the
alter. In another place we were shown
a black spot where an old blind man,
Dondje Stregleyoff, was beaten half to
death, and then thrown senseless on a
heap Of wood and burned alive.
There was an old man here, XYatlo
Boyadjieff by name, a public benefac-
tor, a liberal contributor to the school
fund, who in winter supported half the
widows and orphans in the place, who
was renowned for his charities to
Christians and Turks alike. He was
liEeW Sc seized, tortured, and maltreat-
ed. His eyes were put out, and, after
undergoing the most fearful torment,
lie was thrown on y heap Of wood
fainting or dead. the people do not
know which, and burned. They seized
the priest, Nestor, and cut off his
fingers one by one to eXtort money,
and as the poor man had none to give
them they continued by cutting off his
hands, and finally his head.
We were shown in the yard OF a neat
little cottage, empowered in trees, a
grave, beside which a woman was
kneeling as we passed. It was the
grave Of a young man Of eighteen, who
had just returned home from school
when the troubles began, after an ab-
sence Of two years, and who had taken
no part in the outbreak. They had
seized him, an in mere sport cut off
his hands one by one in the presence
Of his mother, then killed him. What
make these acts more terrible was that
many of them were committed in the
presence of the weeping relatives
wife, mother, brothers, sisters Of vic
Tins. And they were repeated by the
hundred. It would take a volume to
tell all the stories that were related to
us. But it WAS not only old and young
men who suffered; women, young
girls, children, infants were ruthless]y
slaughtered. These Turks have no
pity, no compassion, no bowels. They
have not even the generosity, the pity
Of wild beasts. Even the tiger will
not Stay the young Of it's own species.
But these Turks, these strong bearded
men, picked infants up out OF their
cradles with their bayonets, tossed
them in the air, caught them again,
| and flung them at the heads OF the
shrieking mothers. They carried lit
tie babes about the streets on the
points OF their bayonets, with their
| poor little heads and arms dropping
around the barrels Of their guns. and
| the blood streaming down over their
hands. They cut off the heads of chill
dren, and compelled other children to
carry the still bleeding heads about in
their arms.
I would have Che reader remember
that am relating facts that have been
coldly and concisely noted down in my
presence by NJ. Schuyler notes that
will appear in his report, facts that
were told him by the people who went
and noaned and wrung their hands,
and fairly tore their hair at the bare
remembrance of the scenes they were
relating.