The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1913-03-06
BULCAR MOTHER
WRITES OF WAR
Letter Tells of Nations Sac
rifiCe.
PUTS 500, 900 MEN IN FIELD

Youth Slain on Battlefield - Fears
Peace Will Be Delayed.
Written to a friend in this country
by a Bulgarian woman, the mother of
a family. the following letter describes
conditions in the warlike little Balkan
state as they were in the middle of
January, when all the men of military
age who were not lying i'll or wounded
In the hospitals were with the army
facing the Turks at the front The
name of the town from which the let
ter comes is omitted 1t is dated
Jan. -:
% 1t seems only a few years
ago that we were sitting in that room.
with the windows open toward the
beautiful view on the Bosporus. =. :
But as | see the eager faces of my
daughters bend over my shoulder and
look in their eyes full of curiosity to
know what message this letter from
America brought us in these troubled
times my dream fades away. | awake
to the reality of the long time passed
since we parted.
Yes. our country is in great distress.
Many of our near and dear are down in
! the battlefelds. and many young and
/ promising lives are lost forever But
/ the righteousness of our cause. with
the moral and material help of all the
civilized world. Sustains Us. Thanks to
/ God that our arms are conquering, for
were it otherwise. after so many sacri-
| ices and 50 much boodshed. it would
be total destruction for our country.
Entire Nation Involved.
AS Bulgaria has only 100000 peo-
pie and had to give an army of 100000
soldiers, this war became a national
war. All the nation is engaged in ii.
Rare are the homes that have not sent
I member of their family to the battle
feld, while many have sent two or
three, even four, sons. | know one
mother who has six soldier sons. while
the other day | read in our papers an
actual fact-that n certain mother had
ten sons in the war;
My husband has passed his fifty
years and so is out of the army
Thanks be to God. my boys are not
old enough! One is seventeen. the 9th
er only thirteen years old. But in
stead of them there is my son-in-law,
which for us means just the same as a
son. My heart aches when / think of
all the dangers and hardships to which
he is exposed down there. Yet l must
show myself courageous to my mar
ried daughter. Her husband has tax
en- part in the assault and taking of
Lozengrad turkish name Kirk XII
iisel, famous and we'll fortified fort
next after Adrianople. He was also in
the awful battles of Lule Burgas. etc
the great and bloody combats of five
days, which were fatal for the Turks
and covered our army with glory.
Awful Sacrifice.
But how many lives were sacri-
feed! My son-in-Iaw was slightly
wounded in the leg and continued to
fight. but there he lost his younger
brother, an intelligent young man, a
promising lawyer, who finished his
studies only a year ago in Paris. His
poor mother had three sons down
there, and she did not know for which
one to pray or to think first Now she
prays that the other two may be spared
her
The other day | was present ut a
requiem for two brothers killed in the
war; third brother is wounded. and
of the fourth his family has no news
Our best young men are in the army
!, professors, lawyers, engineers. etc. All
of them have fought brayely. and
many have given their lives to liberate
> the slaves of Macedonia, as it was st
! many years ago in your civil war.
My brother whom you we'll know
as a military man, is now of the rank
: of general. / have also two brothers
= in-law, a colonel and captain Boil
/ took part in several eombats. The
second is seriously i'll after exposure
u to rain and cold. My brother-in-lav
II on my husbands side is now one Of
5 the Bulgarian delegates to the peace
conference in London. My niece's hus
: band, a doctor is also in the from
S lines near the battlefield besides many
s Dther relatives and a great many
:, friends
IS Hoping For Peace News.
Il NOW we are awaiting with grea
> Inxiety the conference in London. DIFF
ferent news reaches us, encouraging
md disappointing. This expectation
: between hope and fear is very distress
ng for our nerves, which are strained
: ill they seem ready to burst, unable
70 bear any more. When shall we hea
the words Peace to the earthT II
these days we had our Christmas ant
:, ioped that it would bring peace. but il
= vain. Shall we hear again the roar o
< The cannon? The Turks are so evash
wash Turkish, yavash, yavash. slow
y. slowly in their ways, and there ar
y 30 many and various interests and ap
> betites in Europe that it appears w
'e nay have yet long to wait for the div
branch Enough blood has been shed