Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1903-09-08
REIGN OF TERRIBLE
TURK ONE OF TERROR
atrocities Committed In Ma
oedonian Turkey.
Full ACCOUNTS NOT GIVEN


Salonica, Macedonia, Sept. THE
news dispatches which are now being
telegraphed abroad contain but tou
sandth part of the truth of the atroci
ties which have been perpetrated il
Macedonian Turkey
In fact, it Is not possible to write in
the English language, much less tt
put into type the outrages that have
been done by the Turks upon the Bull
garians-men, women and children.
The American missionaries cannot
protest at this moment effectively
against the Turkish atrocities for fear
misfortunes and pupils.
This whole region is a charnel house
The air smells of burning human
flesh. of victims inundated in their
own homes. The unburied bodies lie
among the ruins of countless village
homes.
In the mountains the black flags ot
bands of men who are the brothers,
husbands and fathers of the women and
children who have met death at the
hands Of the Turkish soldiers and
guerillas are raised.
Their black flags tell the story of des-
penation and vengeance surging in
every heart. On one side of the black
flag are the initials G. c., standing for
Chodada neu Cuspin-Liberty or death
On the other side are the Bulgarian
words, meaning, God is with us. Be
Of good cheer, o nation"
Life for Life.
Those who bear the black flags are
pledged to exact from the Turks a
life for every man, woman and child
that the Turks themselves have so bar
barously killed.
The insurgent regiments have near
ly their full complement of men now.
c readyn nvtsaeh hsu. u.aoseSETAOIN
The Bulgarian young men in the towns
who have been delayed are making
haste to Join their comrades under the
black flag, to wage open war on the
Turks.
By a mutual understanding among
the Bulgarians, one man in each fam
lily Is allowed to stay at home to save
the women and children, If possible,
from Turkish rapine and murder. But
how helpless to protect their families
are the handful Of men remaining in
the towns Is shown by the recent mas
sacres.
Turkish treachery was never more
barbarously shown than at Smihevo,
where the Turks had encouraged the
Bulgarian men to go to the mountains,
and promised to guard the lives and
honor Of their families as they would
their own. But when the men had
left the town, robbery and carnage
began.
Murder of an American Mission Girl.
A fair young girl who was known
to have made one OF the black flags
for her father and brothers, who had
embroidered in those fatal letters, LIB
erty or Death" was selected as the first
victim OF Mussulman hatred. She
was a pupil of the American mission
school at Monastir, where she had
learned her neddlework.
They beat her. tore her clothing off
and then drove her through the streets.
Hays of the Turkish harems spat upon
the poor creature. An Albanian stab.
bed her with a bayonet, and finally
chopped off her right hand that had
sewed the black flag, and carried the
trophy aloft on his appraised bayonet
as he danced through the streets.
AS the Turks broke into the Bull
garians' houses at this place, they seiz-
ed the women, tore the earrings from
their ears, stripped their outer cloth
ing off, laid these aside as plunder, and
then searched for hidden jewels and
money concealed upon the women. IN
the end they usually killed the women,
and mutflated their bodies. Girls even
Of tender age OF. 10 and IL years shared
the same fate, in the very presence of
their mothers.
The Bulgarian insurgents in the
neighboring hills, maddened by the
sight of their burning homes in Smile.
vo, mustered a regiment under the
black flag and made an assault on the
town. They overpowered the Turkish
soldiers, killing them in the narrow
streets like sheep, giving no quarter to
the destroyers of their homes.
Some Bulgarian women In the vii
lagos of Boine and Krushi, who have
survived, now roam about the ruins
OF their burned homes, uttering the
wild cries of maniacs. They have
gone mad.
One ofthese poor creatures was seer
crying aloud and hugging to her breast
the bloody head of her child. A Turk
ish soldier, on entering her house, with
one swift blow of his sabre. cut of
the head of toddling child, and, seiz
ing it, hurled 1t at the mother. The
frantic woman caught it to her breast
and rushed crazed and screaming from
the house.
The passion of the Turks for blood
for killing every living being, no matter
how helpless, is owing to their religion
BY their sacred book, the Koran, they
are taught that every Christian tha
they kill adds to their own glory ami
happiness after death So these Nus
euln1an fanatics know no limit to theil
slaughter, while chanting, "Glaours
giaours," meaning beings withOu
souls" and calling their victims Cog
and hogs as the butchery goes on.
After such horrors as these 1t Il
not strange that the Bulgarian insur
gents have taken vengeance on tn
Turka. Soldiers bearing the Dlacl
Has recently advanced on three Turk
iSh villages near Ochria and massacre