The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1877-01-04

and they were sheltered from our orn,
by the woods below. The sofia wo,o
called up, got into line, "dressedn and n.
dered to double down the hill. For
moment there was comparative silence.
ndught but the rattle of musketrv onJ
artillery was heard. The priests wo,a
gathering inspiration. 1t was their fra,
battle field. Then with one voice tbor
shouted "Allahp' and with this relioion.
appeal they dashed into the woods. III
Jared it with Russian and Serb that dav
for the softas went on, passing between
the trees and searching for the toe,wbom
when found, they incontinently do.
strOyed, There was no more CHEERING
till we reached The village at the end of
the wood and the last Serb had fed
Then there wasanother loud shout.wbicb
told that the priests had won their
maiden fight and were victorious. #
was always the same; the Turk seemed
ever anxious for the fray. The difficulty
was to make him keep under cover.
do not think the officers on the other
side had any such difficulty. No Turk
ever shotoff hisown hand to avoid the bull.
lets of the infdel; he mightnotgo forward
with great speed would like generally
to trust rather to his rife than to the
wretched tOoth-pick bayonet which his
short-sighted government, like our own,
deems a sufficiently good weapon; but
he would never swerve, not even when
shells plunged into his ranks and laid his
comrades low.
If the Turk and his comrades fight
we'll, it is not because they are well fed
or we'll clothed; on the contrary, their
daily bread seems to he about the last
thing of which those who bear the rule
and authority over them have ever
thought. Their commissariat system is
even more deplorable that ours; III fact
it can scarcely be said to exist. If there
are arrangements of any kind" they
may be briefly said to consist of happy
reliance upon chance, and broad, hope
full trust in something turning up. 1t
was, indeed, felt that the men must have
something in the way of good food, and
accordingly the bakers at Nisch and So
phia were set to work to make thousands
of hard biscuits which it was deter
mined to forward to the troops. To get
them there, however, was another puz-
zle, for there is no Turkish transport ser
vice and in the end all wagons and carts
of the country had to be requisitioned,
together with their buliocks and drivers.
Then long trains of these laden with the
biscuits were daily dispatched over the
rocky roads, and so they have gone on
ever since. DR.. Leslie told me that he
had found men who had tasted nothing
but biscuit and roasted maize-stalks for
seven weeks; and he made a present to
the army in the name of the excellent
Red Cross society, which he represents,
of l, 900 Sleeps and some bullOCks. But
what were they among so many? Hard
ly "nabbo" apiece for the $4,000 hun
cry men who wanted them. Yet the
Turks have gone contentedly on soaking
the brick-like biscuit in the muddy
water they have obtained from the Mo-
rava valley-sometimes so fortunate as
to be able to supplement it with little
coffee or roasted maize-stalks, occasion
ally with a Servian fowl caught in
some deserted village, or a piece of hare
which had been shot down in the long
grass, but generally with nothing at
all.-Lond0n Telegraph.
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