The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1876-11-18
Starvation in Bulgalil.
ANOTHER STARTLING PICTURE OF THE
HORRORS OF WAR.

ANOTHER STARTLING PICTURE VI ihh
HORRORS OF WAR.
But the dead are less to he pitied than
the living. They have been reduced
from ease and comfort to the condition
of wild animals without home, without,
shelter, without bedding, almost with
out clothing. and living on what food
they can pick up from day to day. There
are women here who have known CON-
fort, who are weak and i'll, who have
three or four little mouths to feed.
They go out in the fields, reap enough
wheat for their days food, painfully
thresh it out with their hands, pound it
into -four between two stones, and bake
into bread for their little ones day by
day; and sleep, like foxes, in the corner
of ruined wall on little straw at
night. There are little children here
haggard and thin and sickly, sleeping
almost ON the bare ground, and, when
it rains. on the wet ground. No one
who has not seen it can imagine the
misery caused by the burning of Il vii
lage.
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 the rain. But
there was not enough for all. The
Mudir likewise received little food
now and then, which he distributed,
which barely kept those who had no
harvest or other means of existence from
starving. But there was not enough
and the supply was uncertain and might
cease at any moment. When we were
starting. the women and children gath
cred 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 fur
niture, and cattle, and sheep, and these
rags are all we have left" They barred
their lean skinny arms to show us
their fearful evacuation they barred
their shrunken. shriveled breasts, at
which lean, haggard, wretchcd babes
were Juggling. 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 babes are starving
starving to death. Can you do nothing
for us? 2" And we could do nothing
Out SEcu uSelcSS tcuTS.
And the Turks of the neighboring VII.
lagos, who have taken the horses and
sheep and cattle of these starving wo-
men and 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 the misery with indiffer-
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, but he is
without patriotism. He does not look
upon these people as his mel hbors, his
countrymen. He is too ignorant and
stupid to know that in injuring them he
is injuring himself, that he is attacking
his own country. He knows only Is
lam. The people of India, the nomadic
tribes of Central Asia, whom he has
never seen, of whom he has heard per-
haps once or twice in his life, are nearer
to him than his next door neighbors.
The words country, patriotism, do not
exist in his language. That these Chris
tians, his near neighbors, are his coun-
trymen, that on them as much as on
himself depend the greatness and pros
perity 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
Mahomet, and ne looks no further.
When we left the village hundred
of these women ran after us with their
cries and lamentations. 1t seems they
thought at first VIC had brought them
food or succor of some kind, and when
they learned that we had only come to
make an inquiry, their disappointment
was bitter and overpowing, 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 do? We are starving! We
are are starving to death !"-Lontlon
Daily Ne,rs.
A RARE SIGHr.-A preacher is cred
tied with having gotten off something
novel in a Church Greek pulpit, lately.
which came very near, however, involv-