Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1916-03-30

refused. The peasants ran away and
within a couple OF minutes more than
= thousand shots were fired out OF the
lushy hillside, killing most OF the
Serbs.
"The food problem was terrific even
n Albania. A half pound OF bread
was sold at ten dinars, about two dol
lars. AS had a little money at Sturza
bought five pounds OF Okla beans. Had
not been able to get these beans, l
would today be a dead man / had just
said to myself: I can't 90 any further,
when / persuaded a peasant woman to
sell me the beans. 1 ate beans twice a
uay, making a sort of soup out of them,
Tutting in little salt. At that / was
far luckier than the fellows who had to
boil harness leather for five or six
hours in order tc make the hot water
taste like soup. / saw men act Ike
savages, eating pieces of brown paper.
There were perhaps not more than
1000 women among the retreating
rorde with US and it is a fact worth
recording that they were kindly treated
and given whatever comforts were
available by soldiers who were other
wise dead to every feeling. 1 have
seen such men, gaunt, staggering along,
half naked, with a few pieces of cloth
tor shoes, unable to speak, with barely
strength left to stop near dying horse
and cut a stringy steak from its flank,
| straighten up for a moment near one
tender their last mouthful of food to
some of the women.
1.-The treatment of the women on
| 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 fight from
their homes had in many cases been
Unable to bring enough clothes to cover
chem. Often they were without stock
ings or undersldrts, or hats or shawls
| CT cloaks. / have seen time and try
gain some freezing soldier take OF
one of these women, and seem almost
ashamed to look upon her rhivering
| 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 ne had so freely given"
| What Halter regarded as his most
remarkable experience was the sight
/ Of a mad soldier dying from starva-
ton. Clothed only in a ragged un-
dershirt he was running barefoot down
A snow-covered Albanian road straight
{: s an arrow, believing as he ran" he
said. HE ran on and on down thai
| road. seeing nothing yet wonderfully
avoiding stumbling over the bodies OF
other dead and dying soldiers and tbs
neat-stripped carcasses Of the army
| horses which blocked the way. Suffer
ing intensely as / myself was. 1 turned
and watched this strange figure. a
| last q half mile down the road HI
ETCHED forward and as I passed hin
later 1 saw he was stone dead"
"Other than that incident there /!
Cne other that will stick in my mem
cry so long as l live" said Halter
This was the hanging of a Serl
mother by the Austrian troops beforr
1 was made a prisoner. We wer'
marching across n rough country nea'
| Lochnizter when we stopped near
wayside hut at its spring to get
drink. AS he arose from the spring
shot came from the hut. That sho
was fired by a woman. She stood a
baby In the other.
"One of the captains ordered he
hung. There was nothing else to d.
but execute her. AS a rope was place
about her neck and she was led Z
the nearest tree all she said was this
in a hard, cold voice: My husband {
|, a soldier. l too die for Serbia Sh
made no appeal. She did not cry out
We left her body hanging there IN tn
. wind. The baby was picked up an
sent to the nearest prison camp, to b
cared for"
Through the efforts of Robert Have
rick, representing the United State
among the Austrian prisoners, Halle
was rescued from starvation at Dur
J azzo and later AMBASSADOR Page i
Rome interested himself in the cas-