The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-08-02
work was coon visible everywhere In the shape Of
pierced rrors. battered houses and lettering walls
RrrAIIATINg ON CIunCRyo

thei return fire the ensmys batteries upon which.
however no apparent efec, had been produced: but
st-ing that the town itself being subjected to
cruel bombardment the Pacha ordered the three bat
ter,es opposite Gurgevo 10 rcialiate, and In short
time that receiving the concentrated fire OF
eleven guns, firing at the rate OF about shots each
per hour Several heavy Shells loo. aimed at the bat
tory before Sobosa, must have gone crashing into
that village and made things pretty lively TOR any
troops might have been quartered in It. The prac
tice made by the Turks exceedingly good consider
ing they had FIRE at invisible guns and men on
low fiat plain. WHILE on tho other hand, the Russian
gunncrs had their targets well in the heights
of the Bulgarian Shore which here, as elsewhere on
the whole OF the Lower Danube DOM rates the
loft or Roumanian bank.
DESTRUCTION THE ASGLo.AMEaicAy CONSULATE.
II was only at sunset when the firing ceased on both
sides that We vero able to emerge from our various
places oil refuge and look upon the havoc which
had been wrought The first place l visited was the
Ango-American Consulate, which had evidently been
singled out for destruction Mr.. Reade. the Consul
had been engaged IN writing In hts office during tho
afternoon, but when tho firing began he had gone out
like every else, to watch the duel between The
Russian guns and the LON batteries He then returned
to his house, and had not been there many minutes
whom, without the slightest warning, the Russians
fired upon tho consulate six-inch shell came crash
ing through tho wall into the Office about foot from
the floor and burst in the between the two
desks at which the business OF the consulate was
transacted. In instant the shattered and
the furniture reduced to matcbwood. Fortunately for
Mr. Reade he did not happen be In the Office at tho
time, but, seeing what had happened, he ran
out into his garden overlooking the river in
which his flagstaff is planted and hostcd his largest
'Union Jack" the place OF tho small flag which
flying the time, and which, on alternate days with
the Stars and Stripes, was always be seen at The
masthead Confident that the Russian gunners could
easily recognize the position OF the official seat
OF neutral Power and abstain from firing upon it,
Mr. Rcadc was about TO enter the house again when
two more Shells fired at brief intervals through
the wall mo the room next tho Office. The lower
portion of the house was now wreck. Soon after a
fourth shell, by way of making the destruction
pcte smashed through the solid root aud burst
of the upper bedrooms, knocKihg out an immense
piece OF the wall ana hurting into the street below
massive fragment oil tho solid stone cornice Besides
shells which struck the house two fell In the gar
den, close to the wall.
FIRING UPON THE BRITISH FLAG.
There cannot be the slightest doubt that the Rus
slams deliberately trained their guns upon the British
American consulate and fred upon the British flag
There batteries near the consulate that shells
wide OF the mark can havo accidentally struck the
buildings and, moreover, the fact OF redoubled fire
after the hosting OF larger flag plainly showed that
the bombardment was Intentional The French Oon-
suate which stands close to the British American,
had narrow escape large shell exploded in the
garden close 10 the building.
cAyNoSADING HOSPITALS.
Bad enough as II was to lombard the property and
disregard the flag OF neutral Powers and to throw
shells into the closely packed houses Of densely
TN hou mr. VIII ehall ha
said Of the deliberate. cold booded cannonading of
hospitas9 And yet that Is what the artillery.
men OF 'Holy Russia" did this Sunday afternoon;
that was the work which the batteries OF Gear per
formed with the object of amelioratng the condition
OF his Christian relatives In Bulgaria. The hospitals
at Rustchuk are for the most part situated in the
Konak or government house square, and over each
building was the easily recognized fag-white, with
tho red cresceut-which might DO supposed to render
the building beneath sacred and nviolable. Common
humanity demands that the sick and helpless shall not
be fired upon, say nothing of the Geneva Conven-
ton. by which the principle became Law. Tho
Russians have violated the dictates Of humanity and
have broken the Laws of civilized warfare What
done at widdin been repeated at Rustchuk and 1t
is now high time that Europe should demand an ex-
PLANTATION unless she wishes to stand quietly by and
see OF reprsas
prisons KILLED AND WOUNDED
The casualties OF the day amount to foftysx killed
and wounded not single soldier serving in any Of the
Turkish batteries being included in the lstl A lieu
tenant colonel Of Eeyptians who only arrived yester-
day from Varna while riding through the town toward
one Of the batteries, had both his legs cut of by
shell ana killed on the spot The small gunboat
Nisch struck and sunk, sixteen Of her being
killed and wounded A zaptieh, or gendarme, who
guard at the gate Of ono of tho hospitals,
thal, ofo
cut In two.
WORK SHELLS
There were many singular and wonderful escapes
during the bombardment An Englishmaa, who was
calmly sleeping through all the din in upper
OF the Hotel Pesth, ut last awakened by a crash
which shook him of the bed A shell had entered tho
room Immediately below and destroyed everything
without bringing down the ceiling fragment from
another, which burst IN the Konak square, struck
stand Of rifles. piled IN the centre OF a tent,
smashing and twisting others into
every imaginable shape. There were eight
soldiers in the tent at tho time,
hut not injured. About the
time shell Tell through the Of the porch Of
the hospital in the konak square, in which there
100 sick, without injuring man, but causing the
most excrucating terror among the wre,chod suffer-
ers Another struck the building q which the pachas
were holding meeting, aud third dropped at the
door OF the telegraph Office. Fortunately mono of
these burst else there would have loss
of life. Several heavy shells fell the garden OF
the IsahHane HOTEL erst sacred to the ante prandal
gatherings of masticoving special correspondents,
but the building itself was untouched, although, no
doubt, 1t was fired at.
SAVE US FROM FRIENDS
Altogether some 200 shells were thrown into tho
town during the afternoon and evening" the majority
OF them into the Bulgarian quarter, which suffered
severely We'll might the Bulgarans cxclam, II this
is the friendship OF Russia, and this the manner in
which We ale to be freed from the rule OF the
Turk, save from our triendsl The siege train
which thus commenced operations upon this I'M
fortunate town, was composed OF guns large cabrc
throwing conca shells OF six. eight and ten inches.
picked up aierward on tho floor OF the Office in the
British American Consulate ths base OF the first shell
which struck the building and shattered the room and
fouud IL measure exactly nye and three