Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-01-20
Incidents Of the Siege of Pleyna.

Correspondence London Standard.
Skobeletf S wound was not dangerous,
but would have been were 1t not that On
both occasions when he was struck he
was wearing thick double sheepskin
coat, which turned the rifle ball and pre-
vented the fragment of shell doing more
than rip the flesh. Skobeleff rode away
to visit the Car, and /, having break
tasted with his staff, sailed out with its
chief, Col. Keroupat Kline, to view the
positions so gallantly taken and so obsti-
nately defended on the night OF the 9th
and morning Of the 10th. AS scram-
bled knee-deep in mud up the steep sides
Of the Monte Vert" | could but wonder
to myself how, under the pltiless fire Of
the Turkish regulars, the Russians had
succeeded at all in making good their
hold on the summit.
Arriving on the crest l had a glimpse
at corner Of the Turkish position, but as
it was dangerous work to lift even for a
moment ones head above the cover Of the
pit, no view could be got worth describ-
ing. Still, what did witness and will
endeavor to tell you Of was one Of those
little episodes of war which strike homeits
horrors to the heart more deeply than a
days wholesale slaughter. From the
Turkish lines stole out five men. crouch
ing, creeping, and running over the broken
ground between the lines toward field
of maize, distant some 800 yards from
| their starting point Their rifles were in
their left hands, and every now and then,
thinking themselves safe from Russian
ken, they would stop as though to see
who of them would go on first, and then
go on again, all Of them together.
Their object was evidently to gain
corn field about $50 yards from the spot
where Kcroupat Kline and l were lying,
and gather the standing ears, then make
back with them to feast on with theil
comrades in their trenches. But, alas fol
them, in this very corn-tield the Russians
had their rific-pits; it was all over in less
time than it takes to write it. AS the five
on hand and knees got amid the corn
the Russians leapcd from the trenches il
which they were hid, and in moment
four Turks were quivering under thci1
bayonets. The fifth had presence O
mind enough to fling him his rifle, ane
such was his agony of fear and thu
. strength lent by it that the piece flew
some fifty yards.
He was pushed down with the butt enc
of a rifle, aud brought in prisoner. II,
told us that hunger had compelled some
fifty facing us IN the Turkish trenche
to draw lots of five as to who should e
out and gather from the field in thei
front bags full of ears Of Indian corn, ant
to these unlucky five the chance hat
fallen
In the earlier part of the day, whilst
was breakfasting with the staff, as alread,
mentioned, little detail of war occurred
which, though of no importance in itself
serves to mark the character Of war, ant
brings out its sufferings, and the callous
ness to the fate of others, which it mus
of necessity engender even in the kindes
dispositions.
A young, good-looking sub-lieutenan
OF some twenty years or so presented him
self with a military salute before GU
breakfast table, holding in his hand hi
coat-tail riddled with bullet-holcs, and ex
planned that as junior artillery officer o
his battle he had been ordered to climb
tree to direct and mark the fire on new
: reconstructed redoubt thrown up by The
Turks and out of sight from tn.
ground level; that he had been up Their.
two hours, tho latter part of which he hat
been the target of some four Turk
ish sharpshootcrs, who were gradually i'm
proving their practice, and he though
that he had had enough of it, and begged
to be relieved. Everybody laughed a
the Colonel, chief Of the staff, ordered hin
back again to his post to remain until HI
fell or was called down And so l laugh
ed too, in chorus, not quite understanding
for the moment what the matter was.
oelife, and of death, he gave me as h
took himself off to obey, an SIT tn Brute
look which I shall not forget.