St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-09-14

approached them. The Turkish nota-
bles of Eski Laghra, Tefek Bey, Sadik
Bey and Daja Ahmed Joined in the
slaughter. Sadik Bey is a large farmer
and it is asserted of him that he went
to his own farm and himself cut down
a large number of his tenants, who we're
at that moment peacefully engaged in
tilling his soil. Little children were all
killed wherever these ferocious regulars
passed. Some of the poor babies were
found thrown into bitches, after being
hacked with hatchets, shot with revolt
vers and horribly mutilated with poig-
nards. The heaps of dead encountered
the streets of Eski Zaghra. Women
were stripped of their clothing, and
were piled in the most shameful post
ures, one above another. The Circas-
slams hacked and manned the diving in
a manner calculated to prolong their
agonies. In all the town of Eski Zagh-
ra, where perhaps fifteen thousand peo-
Christians were left alive. The misera-
BILE Turks burned hospital, in which
between three and four hundred sick
and wounded were sheltered.
WHOLE VILLAGES LAID WASTE.
But in the agricultural region in the
vicinity of Eski Zaghra the most terri
bic work was done. Said Aga of Tchir-
paw-a terrible fellow, who was deeply
concerned in the bloody massacre of
last year-Organized raid against the
Christian villages, and in company with
numerous bloOdthirsty Bashi-Bazouks
laid waste large numbers of villages.
This was one of the richest sections of
Bulgaria cultivated, and
most OF the peasants lived at ease. In
every village there were churches and
schools, and it is said that the fiend
Said Aga burned more than thirty of
the former and fifty of the latter. Un-
happily, Russian bullets did not sue
ceed in reaching him. The names of
the villages which suffered most in the
immediate vicinity of Eski Zaghra are
as follows: Guneli- Mahlesi, where there
were about two hundred families-that
is, Bulgarian patriarchal families-mak-
ing seven or eight ordinary ones in
each Radue Mahlesi, with one hun
dred and twenty families Bech Tepe,
with two hundred Gunelii, with nine
ty and Baghden- -Mahlesi, with perhaps
two hundred families. Scarcely stick
or stone was left standing in any one
of these hamlets, and nearly every vii
lager that remained in them until the
Turks arrived was slain. Those who
fled to Eski Zaghra were nearly all
killed; only those who retreated when
the the Russians did, succeeded in es-
Gaping. The same cruelties and mutt
latiOns we're practiced in the small viii
lagos as in Eski Zaghra. Children and
women suffered especially; it never
occurred to the cOnquerOrs to spare
any they seemed determined to cut
the race off root and branch NV in
formant, who by the way is Naumof,
says that he visited numerous villages
near Eski Zaghra that were burned the
week before the great massacre, and
that the sights there were appalling.
And these things came to pass under
the eyes of clement God, in this nine
teenth century, in one of the loveliest
regions of Europe. The slaughter at
Eski Zaghra occurred on the day whose
patron saint is Saint Germain Z Auxeri-
ors, the saint who presides over the
destinies of the church from whose bel
fry the massacre of Saint Bartholomew
was sounded!