Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1877-07-17
From the New York Times.
Turkeys New Ally.


The Emperor Nicholas, commenting
upon Prince Menschikoff's military blum
ders remarked that Russia had two lead
ers upon whom she could rely, Gen. JAN
uary and Gen. February" In like manner
Turkey, though confronted by overwhelm-
ing numbers, is confident in the support
Of two formidable allies, Gen. Pestilence
and Gen. Famine. The devastation of
Bulgaria has retorted upon Russia the de-
vice practiced by herself with such fatal
success In 1872 and the problem of feed
ing zoe. 900 fighting men in region which
has been unsparingly swept of every sheaI
of corn and every head of cattle is likely
to prove more embarrassing than the
stanchest resistance of the enemy. 1t is
noteworthy coincidence that Darius and
his invading army suffered from the same
cause and on these grounds,five hundred
years before the Christian era. Thracian
Scythians, laid waste the country and re-
treated, just as their successors are doing
to-day; and the "Great King escaped
only by the humiliatng expedient of aban-
doning part of his Army, and making
secret retreat by night with the rest. The
terrible effectiveness OF this mode of war
fare was sufficiently shown during the
Thirty Years War, in the last years OF
which, as great historian forcibly says,
The question was not which Army could
fight the best. but which could starye the
longest" The orders sent to his Gener-
ais by Louis XIV, to make Sahara Of
the Palatinate," and the deliberate dev&s-
tation Of their own territory by the Per-
SLAMS during the Herat campaign of 1851
s, are too well known to need repetition.
In the present case, Russia has the ad
diiional burden Of the Starving Bnlssrians
who, having suffered in the cause Of the
Car, naturally look 10 him for aid. Il is
here that Turkeys naval superiority makes
itself bitterly felt. Were Odessa still
open, the boundless grain supply of South
ern Russia would quickly solve the prob
lem; but as it is, there remains only tar
dy and precarious convoy by the single
railway from kischineif to the Danube via
Jassy. The proposed railroad from Sste-
va to Tirnova Is probably the best remedy
that could be suggested; and those who
witnessed the astounding rapidity with
which "make-shift line" Of this sort was
laid by the Russian military engineers
from the great camp of krasnoe-Selo, five
years ago, can imagine the celebrity with
which such task would be completed
under the eye Of the Gar, with such an
overseer as Gen. Todleben.
This contingency must have been fore
seen by the Russians, If there be any truth
10 the current rumor of an accumulation
Of stores sufficient to support the whole
Army at Adrianople til. the Spring. Be
this as it may, ii is certain that the Turks
are little, if at all. better provided than
their opponents. The Constantinople
Phlippopolis Railway, lying as it does al
most entirely in the rear of the Balkan
chain, will avail them little while they re-
main in Bulgaria, and the few roads which
traverse that light clayey soil become inn
passable after single shower. Napole-
oa, when asked by the examiners of the
Brienne Military School, chow he wonld
provision himselfif bloekaded," answered
with stern conciseness, From the enc.
N.Y." But in the present case the enemy
himself is equally straitened, and tht
war threatens to lapse into gigantic cops
of the ancient Hlndoo duel, where each
combatant stroye TO starve out his adyer'
sary before succumbing himself.