Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1891-07-04
HORRORS OF WAR.
The Terrible Atrocities Being Per-
petrated in Chill.
Startling stories of tho Dcspotism andN
Cruelty of PRESIDENT Balmacoda-Peo-
pie Mysteriously disappearing and
Their Hcadless Bodies arc After -
wards Found. l.fH

wards Found. ltfF
NEW York, June 29.-The startling
stories of the cruelties and despotism,
practiced by President Balmaceda, i'm
stigator and clief figure in the Chilian
war, as published recently, are COM
pletely overshadowed by the facts
which are now made public for the first
time. The information is obtained from
prominent Chilians who arrived here on
the steamship City of Para last week.,
The most prominent of the arrivals was
Don Pedro Monnt, who is the accredited
representative of the revolutionist party
in Chilli, and who is brother of Adj
miral Monnt, ting president of the
revolutionary party From these gem
tlemen the incidents here given were
obtained.
Don Pedro Monnt when shown tho
dispatches referring to the Balmaceda
cruelties, said that the actual truth far
exceeded the published accounts of the
affair. The whole of Chill, he said, was
suffering dire distress as result of the
war and all classes were losing their
property, whether in the city or in the
country.
From another gentleman who arrived
| from Chill on the same steamer with
Don Pedro Monut and party, Senior Jose
Gonzales, additional horrors of the revo-
luton are learned. Senor Gonzales saids
'Balmaceda is practicing cruelties un-'
heard of in the history of Chilli. A friend
of mine who was prominent citizen of
Concepcion-Senor Sorrano land his
son were put in prison because they re-
| fused to obey the dictates of the tyrant.
| Being imprisoned failed to break their
| spirit, so Balmaceda had the father
taken out into the yard of the jail and
mercilessly tortured. After being brut-
ally flogged the tendons of his arms and
| legs were severed to render him help
less for life. This horrible cruelty was
purposely practiced within earshot of
the son, who was afterwards subjected
| to the same treatment before the gaze
of his father, now fast dying from loss
of blood and the result Of the terrible
ordeal. Neither of them survived the
| horrors of the torture which was in
dicted upon them.
Another of Balmaceda's atrocities
came to light by the merest accident.
| Since the beginning of the hostilities a
number of well known citizens of San
tiago have mysteriously disappeared.
In many places they have left their resi-
dences to be gone an hour or two and
have never returned or been heard from.
The ultimate fate of two of them was,
however, discovered by the accident re-
| ferred to before left Santiago. Their
bodies were taken on Sunday to the
cemetery for burial. The burial per-
mits being irregular the cemetery au-
thorities would not admit them. The
bearers went back to the town to get
the proper changes made in the permits.
''While they were on this errand the
men in charge of the cemetery suspect
ing that something was wrong opened
the collins and discovered that all the
bodies We're headless OF course this
created great excitement and the news
spread rapidly through the town. Ex-
animation of the headless corpses
showed from marks on the bodies that
two of them were prominent residents
of Santiago, while the third one was
never identified. 1t was afterwards
learned that these men had been ar
rested and executed by order of Balma-
ceda."
The same gentleman also stated that
in all the fights that had taken place in
the province of Garapaca, Balmaceda
had not taken a single prisoner. His
orders to his officers were to shoot all
prisoners as fast as taken, as they had
no time to bother with them nor food
to give them.
On the other hand, the constitutional
party had taken great many prisoners
of war and they filed a steam trans
port with wounded men and sent them
down the coast to Caldera, five days
journey. Balmaceda's officers at Calde-
ra refused to receive their own wounded
men who had been fighting for Balma-
ceda's cause, This steamer load of poor
wounded soldiers had to be taken all
the way back to Iquique, another five
days journey. There they were taken
ashore and cared for by the residents Of
tine town. Many of them died because
of the long sea trip, where they were
crowded together without proper care
and attention.
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