The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1916-03-31
JOURNEY OF DEATH
RELATED BY HALLER
Continued from Page iohe.

the Austrian army and was serving
as bugler when, six months later,
he was taken prisoner by the Serbs
and then finally was marched with
$4,000 other Austrian soldiers across
the mountains into Albania and
there turned loose on the shores of
the Adriatic TO fight for life against
cholera. fever and starvation"
eve were supposed 10 have
started on that retreat" said Halter,
with a Serb army of over two hun
dred thousand men and about seven
ty-five thousand Austrian prisoners.
Not many more than hundred and
fifty thousand of the whole lot got
over the mountains. 1t was not be-
cause the Austrians or the Bulgariars
pursued us. however, with much
activity. We died merely because of
disease, hunger and exhaustion.
The worst part of the journey
begain AT the Albanian frontier
The .Albanians have in times past been
badly treated by the Serbs,
and they took this chance TO square
old scores, They shot, killed, robbed,
and murdered us at every step of
the way For instance, at Linn, some
Serb officers and a company Of
stragglerS on horseback were met in
the middle of the road by few peas
ants and ordered to give up their
horses and their money. 1t was plain
highway robbery and they refused.
The peasants ran away and within a
couple of minutes more than thou
1Sh f1.a1 Of hn hr,c nv
hillside killing most of the Serbs
Food Problem Was Terrific
''rhe food problem was terrific
even in Albania A half pound OF
bread was sold at ten dinars, about
two dollars. AS had little money
at Sturza | bought five pounds of Okla
beans. Had | not been able to get
these beans, ! would today be dead
man. | had just said to myself: I
can't go any further, when I per-
suaded peasant woman to sell me
the beans. | ate beans twice a day,
making sort of soup out of them,
putting in little salt. At that / was
far luckier than the fellows who had
10 boil harness leather for five or
six hours in order to make the hot
L
act like savages, eating pieces of
brown paper.
There were perhaps not more than
two thousand women among the
retreating horde with us and it is
fact worth recording that they We're
kindly treated and given whatever
comforts We're available by soldiers
who were otherwise dead to every
feeling. | have seen such men, gaunt,
staggering along, half-naked, with a
few pieces of cloth for shoes, unable
to speak, with barely strength left
to stop near dying horse and cut
stringy steak from its flank, straighten
up for moment near one of the wom-
ems carts and smilingly tender
their last mouthful of food to some
of the women.
49,. Treatment Of Women
The treatment of the women of
this dreadful retreat was to me the
most wonderful, the most moving,
the most heroic part of the whole
retreat. These poor women in their
flight from their homes had in many
cases been unable to bring enough
Clothes to cover them. Often they
were without stockings or under
skirts, or hats or shawls or cloaks.
l have seen time and again some
freezing soldier take off his over
coat and force it upon some one of
these women, and seem almost
ashamed to look upon her shivering
body as he made the offer. Then he
would search along the road for hours
until he was able to strip some dead
man OF his clothes to replace that
which he had so freely given
What Halter regarded as his most
remarkable experience was the sight
of a mad soldier dying from starya-
ton. Clothed only in a ragged un-
dershirt he was running barefoot
down a snow covered Albanian road
straight as an arrow, believing as
he ran" he said, HE ran on and on
down that road, seeing nothing vet
wonderfully avoiding stumbling over
the bodies of other dead and diving
soldiers and ~the meat stripped car
cases of the army horses which
blocked the way. Suffering intensely
as myself was,I turned and watched
this strange figure. At last half
mlie down the road he pitched for
ward and as l passed him later |
saw he was stone dead 4
Hanging of Serb Mother
Other than that incident there is
one other that will stick in my
memory so long as live" said Halter
This was the hanging of Serb
mother by the Austrian troops before
| was made a prisoner We wore
marching across a rough country
near Lochnizter when we stopped
near wayside hut at it's spring to
get a drink. Colonel He'll of our
regiment also went to get drink.
As he arose from the spring a shot
came from the hut. That shot was
fired by a woman. She stood at the
door an old shotgun in one hand, a
baby in the other.
One. of the captains ordered her
hung. There was nothing else
to do but execute her. AS rope