Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-08-12

has himself seen the corpses of nom
CONTESTANTS. both men and women,
strewn along every trail that the Rus
sian army has traversed. June =, wnlIe
climbing a pass at least 10000 rect
above sea level, two remarkably hand-
some Armenians were seen slain be
side the road and nearby lay hurd-
ish girl. dead from starvation and
hardship. In a niche of the rocks OF
the high mountain pass there was
found a deserted baby softly crying be-
meath a saddle blanket.
Women Plead for Bread.
At one point group of thirty Arme-
MAN women gathered at the midday
hating place Of the Russian soldiers
on the crest of the pass. and moaned
for food and clothes. but there was
nothing to spare them, as the soldiers
themselves were without bread or fuel
to cook their superabundant mutton.
They were in district where even dry
weeds failed them for fire building pur-
poses, and there were no more villages
to destroy for roof timbers. Even the
veteran campaigners Of the Russo
Turkish war of 1878 and of every
Russian campaign since then are sick
ened by the conditions with which they
come in daily contact in this devastat-
ed land. and especially by the emery
ence of the brute instincts to kill and
destroy.
The roads and sheep paths every
where are bestrewn with the posses
sions of the kurds of Van vilayet and
on the mountains and in the valleys
there Craze countless thousands of
their abandoned sheep. Dead horses,
broken saddles, harness and torn uni
forms testify also to the rapid weaken
ing of the Turkish regulars.
One mountain stream was found
bridged with rugs and carpets laid on
roof timbers from a neighboring viii
lage. Another was formed of the bod
les of sheep. similarly supported.
Kurds Bear Brunt Of Retreat.
The Kurds have borne the brunt of
the Turkish retreat, and in addition to
the leaving behind of their cattle, they
have abandoned their rich carpets and
rugs, and SO much rough carded wool
that in places the wool lies thick
enough to pave the muddy roads
The Russian military students in this
camp claim that the present progress
of their forces has cast shade even
upon the crossing of the Alps by Han
nibal and Napoleon. Almost daily this
army has had to cross worse than AL.
pine heights. The best maps have
proved unreliable, and there have beer
no competent native guides. Detach.
ments have gone three or four days at
a time without a pound of bread OF
rye toast. and a general halt was made
necessary today by the almost total
lack of salt, sugar, bread and barley
The horses have climbed up and down
many steep slopes 1000 feet high or
grass alone. The last great pass, a
snowy waste of many miles, is marked
by scores of dead and dying horses In
some places the ground to be traversed
was covered with snow hundreds OF
feet deep. In other places horses had
10 De led over narrow, melting snow
bridges across swirling streams. TIC
slip was to be engulfed, and that fate
befell three of the Russian soldiers
In the sunshine it is blistering and
binding, at night there is frost Last
night fresh snow fell on the heights
around the camp. The camel train ar
rived last night, twenty-four hours
late. The men had to sleep the night
before In the open. Scarcely a dozen
campfires of scanty dried stubble
blaZed long enough to boil tea, and
those too thinly covered to sleep had to
walk in the dark to avoid freezing.
Horses Die of Poison.
To complete the desperation, the
bivouac CHANGED to be in a place over
grown with poisonous weeds, which the
starving horses ate greedily. AS a re-
suit fifty or sixty. including Gen. MS
mount, were dead before morning.
For a week life has been reduced to
it's elements. Thousands of men think