The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-10-18
TURKISH ARMY
is OEMORALIzED
MosIem Soldier Is Unkempt, No
Marksman and Occasional
y a Coward.

ing the Turkish army is that it is an
excellent fighting machine, even if I'M
kempt and dirty. AS far as the latter
belief is concerned it is absolutely cor
rect, for more disreputable-l looking
rascal can scarce be imagined than a
soldier of the imperial Ottoman army.
Indeed. in many instances, label hung
round his neck, saying: This is a SOL
dier" would prevent much confusion.
Whatever the Turk may have been in
bygone times, he is by no means the
valiant, reckless soldier today who
marches into battle joyfully, conjuring
up visions of Paradise. He has dis
played the most abject cowardice in
fighting these handfuls of insurgents,
but perhaps he may think that being
blown to pieces by dynamite does not
constitute free pass to the arms of
the houriS. AT any rate there have
been no instances of his cheerfully sac
rificing his life, and when bombs are
in the air he prefers hiding in the
mealie fields. or standing up to his neck
in water, praying for quieter times.
Thousand of troops are guarding the
railways, but I assert emphatically that
1T is solely owing to the lack of enter
prise on the part of the insurgents
that every bridge and viaduct in Mace
donia has not been blown up. Let me
quote an instance which occurred re-
Gently not far from Monastir.
The insurgents had succeeded in
blowing up a very small bridge, which
was as promptly repaired. AS a guard
there was company of soldiers under
the command of a captain a few hum
dred yards away. and little further
down the line another detachment
commanded by sergeant. The bridge
itself, however, was carefully left I'M
cd J.,
ucing this omission, instructed the cap
tain to detail a guard. The officer con-
scented to send ten men if the sergeant
also contributed a quota of five men
and the engineer returned to Monastir.
Next morning he returned at daybreak
and discovered, to his intense disgust,
the bridge unguarded. 1t being day.
light, the soldiers of the two posts col
lected at the bridge, and the engineer
demanded angrily of the captain why
he had not carried out his instructions.
whereupon this gallant officer put the
blame on the sergeaent.
MY ten men We're ready Z" he said,
but the other five did not come" The
sergeant became indignant, and In a
few seconds the captain and sergeant
very nearly came to blows.
The railway officials tell many a merry
tale of the confusion when the troops
We're poured into this uniucky vilayet.
fetch troops from certain stations and
when they arrived there they found no
troops, returning after a few hours fruit
less search as empty as they went. When
Krushevo was in the hands of the insur-
gents, several batteries were dispatched
thither to assist the infantry. They ar
rived four days late, because the COM
manding officer had mistaken the name of
the town for KrcheVo, two days march
In another direction. There are rnany such
stories, all equally entertaining
IalklnR o mo of
an amusing and instructive conversation
held with certain pasha One of lis had
seen battery on the march, and COM
plimented this pasha afterward on its
smart appearance. But" remarked an
other correspondent, they never practice
shooting. What would happen in case of
ware"
"Ohr' responded the pasha blandly,
1.-THE non commissioned officers know how
to handle the guns, and in case of war
served in the Greco Turkish war, and
they would all be called in
1t is the same with the infantry. They
never shoot in times of peace, and are
consequently wretched marksmen. Their
one idea is to blaze away in any direc-
ton. and to watch fight from even
considerable distance Is quite danger
Gus. Bullets fly literally in every direc-
ton.
The attention of high Turkish officer
was recently drawn TO this lack of marks
manship, but he pooh-poohed it. saying:
"Our soldiers don't care for firing; they
love to get to close quarters and use the
bayonet." Yet the Turkish troops show
great reluctance to close WITH the insur-
gents. Whenever a band is localized in a
village, mass of troops surround it and
lombard it for hours from "A distance.
The village of Banitza was held re-
Gently by a band of thirty-five men. Two
or three battalions surrounded them,
opening fire about 10 a. m. Towards the
afternoon the band broke out twenty
one escaping, but the other fourteen were
caught in a small hollow. For three hours
the overwhelming force of Turks poured
q hail of bullets into this hollow, ulti-
mately ceasing fire at p. m. The four
teen Bulgarians were of course, literally
shot to pieces, probably within the first
ten minutes
At Amatovo, a station on the Uskub-
Salonika line, perhaps the most amusing
episode Of this years campaign occurred.
Close by band had made a marsh it's
headquarters for many days, and the
Turks getting wind of it, sent a small
army with guns to capture them. For
whole day the swamp was bombarded
with shrapnel and riddled with bullets
and the only damage done was when q
shell burst little too far, and sent
shower of sand against the station mas
ter's windows. But the band had left
the night before. Several thousand rounds
of ammunition, therefore, had been wasted
on barren stretch of rushes and swamp.
1t is the same everywhere. reckless ex-
penditure of cartridges and a minimum
loss of life from this mode of fighting.
Things have reached such a pass here
troll thinks nothing of shooting down a
peasant working in his fields. Corpses
strew the melon gardens and remain I'M
buried Riding a short distance from the
town yesterday. / saw gendarmerie pa
troll marching along the high road be-
quilting the way by firing shot alter
nately at about every hundred yards
They did not trouble to aim their rifles
in the air but fired point blank across
the fields. all under cultivation.
When the Swedish officers arrived five
months ago, to attempt the herculean task
OF reforming the gendarmerie. they de-
manded as the first step that the men
should be paid. This has not yet been
done. Naturally the gendarmes help
themselves wherever they go.
The pay of Turkish soldier amounts
to about IS Cd month. but in spite of
all statements to the contrary they have
not been paid for months. Perhaps the
money has been sent from Constantine
pie. but it never reaches the private SOL
diers. While employed on a campaign
of this kind they don't mind so much. as
long as they are not kept in the big towns
too long. There is loot enough in the vii
lagos to satisfy their modest wants.
There is another weak point in the
Turkish army of today-viz, the officers.
The old fighting lieutenant risen from the
ranks has practically disappeared In
his place are officers often without any