The star of Pascagoula. [volume] (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1873-1878, 1877-10-05
IN THE RUSSIAN AMPS
uo,r,n,c Sc~eue-TurLi .h soldiers Prefer
Death 10 Transportaiion-Thei k"g'
red Uniforms and Splendid Arms.

1OlAulIH, mutiC NAN'
b~eadeuarters before Plevna, is if possible,
A still more wretched place than Gorni-
Sudden, Hadii Koi, and the other villages
near by. When rain comes n feels
utterly wretched, being obliged to huddle
into a babitation which the bugs dispute
with him. and where the presence OF the
easlIy initiated scorpion is quite probable.
The roads from Poradim towards the old
battlefield of Plevna--it seems already as
ifthe affair occurred century ago---are in
an indie ,cribably bad condition a retreat
along them would be almost an impossi-
bility so that it seems asst the Russians
must 90 ahead in any case. Hundreds
of dead still lie unburied on this terrible
field, and, sad to relate, but true, the
ownerless dogs that infest this country
have eaten the corpse of many a brave
hero. This is one of the most revolving
features of the present campaign. There
has been no chance for the Russians to
give Christian burial to these unfortu-
mates; they lay too near the entrench-
ments from which the Turks can at any
time pour forth a murderous fire. The
stencil from the field, in this terrible
climate, is rimply intolerable for human
beings one is compelled to fly as rapidly
as possible; even the horses scream with
disgust when they are compelled to ap-
proach this CHASTITY array of the results
of violent death. Here and there lie
multilated bodies, rotting in the sun and
rain. Such spectacles sometimes move
the Russian soldiers to terrible threats of
vengeance, which their officers will not
~ -. L. f,1En Tho cp1Iiara baup
murmured a few times at the very kind
treatment accorded by the Russian
authorities t. their prisoners. But | am
inclined to think that it Furnishes the
Turk worse to send him way into the
north of Russia than it would to kill him
on the emo quarter" principle. He
would take the death at the hands of his
enemy as a sure passport into Paradise
but he feels keenly the long journey
away from home, and especially from
Mussulman habits. Foreign countries
have no charm for him he detests and
despises them Il am, of course, speaking
of the rank and file now, and home
sickness frequently drives the Turk to
suicide. Cases of this kind happened
repeatedly when Suleiman Pasha's army
was operating in Herzegovina and in
Montenegro. | have seen a great many
Turkish prisoners, and it must be adj
mitted that they looked pretty thoroughly
punished. The other day, while crossing
an immense sandy expanse, dotted here
and there only by friendly wells, rising
their long sweeps ~ike.skinny arms,
reckoning the traveller to approach and
be refreshed, | came upon six hundred
prisoners, escorted byabout forty soldiers,
.toiling along the wastes of this Oriental
desert. The procession was picturesque
enough, certainly, but it was full of
misery. There were three officers in an
OK. cart-imagine journeying across the
desert in an ox-cart--who served 50 well
to illustrate some types common in the
Turkish army that | will describe them
for you. One was the traditional ragged
captain, who has not been paid for two
or three years and whose European-like
uniform is a mass of rags and patches.
To see such a scarecrow officer equipped
with eloquent side arms beautiful
Damascus blade and an American revol-
ver-can not but provoke a smile. But
the captains mieu was as proud as though
his pockets were loaded with gold, and
when he pulled his blue tattered coat
about him, and turned his bronze colored
face toward the sky with grim dignity,
he seemed to be invoking the approba-
ton of Allah for his patience and self
denial. The second was an officer of
HIGH INDEPENDENTLY of Asiatic birth,
and one of the old-school Turks, who do
not believe that the infdel has any right
- L. o.1 -rLA hnu nrnpI a-.o.
about the grandeur of the Turkish empire
once on a time. He wore a turban,
gracefully folded around his head, but
pushed back from a broad and rather
impressive brow. He looked neither to
the right nor the left as the procession
passed his arms were folded on his
breast, and his gaze was proudly fixed on
vacancy. He was made of the stuff
which prompts the fanatical Turk to
order the wholesale slaughter of Chris.
tians, as at Eski and Jeni- Saghra, at
Lovca and Plevna, at Phillipopolis and
Adianople, at Kazanlik and Karabunar.
His clothes were rich and his arms were
decorated with silver and gems. Why
the Russians allow these fellows to retain
their swords | have not yet been able to
discover. 1t is certain that if the emperor
had not made many express commands
concerning the exercise Of mercy and
courtesy towards the enemy, some of
hese superior Turkish officers would
have Jared very badly. The third
prisoner in the ox-cart was a thorough
TYNE of the commander of irregulars, a
brigand, if there was one. a professional
murder. who would prefer to cut a throat
rather than to spare a life, whose hatred
for the Russian was only IN excuse for
the exercise of his v~illianous trade. This
man reminded me, while gazing at his
face. of a fox and a tiger. He had all
the slyness of the one and the cspricious .
f~erocity and blood thirstiness of the other
written on his mean, low brow, in the
rapid glances OF his small twinkling eyes
aud in his rapid, sinuous movements.
Such men when taken are nearly always
found armed with a small knife, whose
blade is shaped like a crescent. The
gentle New England reader may place
perfect credence in the fact that this
knife is manufactured expressly for the
purpose Of cutting Threats. Its peculiar
shape renders it specially adaptable to
this amusement. In addition to this
knife, the commander of the irregulars
generally carries two long pistols, antique
in fashion, and firing a ball about the size
Of a marble, such as boys play with at
a ~yataghan, with an ivory or bone
handle, and a blade on which some very
mysterious locking characters are traced !