The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1876-10-05
IN


Another Startling Picture OF the yUor-
rors OF Wharf.-The sufTerings OF the
bulgarian Women and Chiidren-De-
spsir Of the Mothers.
tfrom the London Daily News.l
But the dead are less to be 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 a 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 children to feed.
They go out in the fields, reap enough
wheat for the day s food, painfully
thresh II out with their hands, pound it
into flour between two stones, and bake
it into bread for their little ones day by
day; and sleep, like the foxes, in the
corner of a ruined wall on n 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. Nobody
who has not seer it can imagine the
misery caused by the burning Of a 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 were no en- ough for all. The
Mudir 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 starving. But there was not
enough, and the supply was un certain,
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 a
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 emacia.
ton they barred their shrunken, shriv-
eled breasts, at which lean, .haggard,
wretched babes were Juggling, TO show
us they had no milk. God knows, their
hollow checks, and sunken eyes, and
despairing faces were proof enough.
They said: "We are starving; our
babes are notwithstanding 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 wom-
en- 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 this misery with inditler-
ent eyes. We saw several here who
had come out of mere curiosity, well
fed, fat, insolent, smiling their con-
tempt 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 neigh
bors, his countrymen. lie is too igno.
rant and stupid to. know that in injuring
them he is injuring himself, that he is
attacking his W country. lie knows
no such thing as country. He knows
only Islam. The people of India, the
nomadic tribes of Central Asia, whom
he has never seen, of whom he has
heard nee or twice perhaps in his life,
are nearer to him than his next dool
%neighbors. The words country, patri-
otism, do not exist in his language.
That these Christians, his lea neigh
bors, are his countrymen, that on them
as much as on himself depend the great.
ness and prosperity of his country, is q
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 Religions Mohammed, and he looks
no further.
When we left the village a hundred OF
these women ran after us for a mile with
their cries and lamentations. 1t seems
they thought at first We had come to
bring them food or succor of some kind,
and when they learned that 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
wringing their hands, rocking them.
selves to and fro, and moaning, rather
to themselves than for us, "What shall
we do? What shall we do? We are
starving! We are starving to death!'