The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-01-12

in the town. He replied that evidently
the Bulgars had found somebody. Who
was the somebody? Women and chill
dren? They must have been hiding in
going from house to house. shooting
and killing? Was this a massacre
1 asked the colonel. He didn't know;
it might be. a column Of smoke rose
from the village. Through our glasses
we saw a house burning.
Ate Bread and Cheese.
We couldn't find out what hap
pened in the little village of Lau that
morning. Other buildings were afire
when we left. No one could go over
there. A thousand men, perhaps,
might have fought their way there,
but that would have caused the re-
sumption of the battle of Halinci,
which Colonel Vassich was not quite
ready to resume.
1t was lunch time when we got back
to the main road and our auto.
On a bale of hay a soldier stretched
4 tablecloth and placed tin plates, tin
cups, wine, bread and cheese. Other
bales of hay were our chairs Behind
us stood caisson. I noticed soldiers
leading six huge oxen up to it. They
hitched them to it and the wheels
touched the back of my chair" as the
caisson rolled away.
A hundred feet off stood a cannon
in a crude, cellar like hole. A dozen
soldiers hauled it out on level ground.
Other oxen were hitched to it. Within
few moments the caisson and the
cannon were drawn from the field to
the main road. and guarded by score
of soldiers, the procession started
slowly back toward Monastir.
That was all part of the Serbian re-
treat before overwhelming odds, that
began at the Danube river last Octo-
Der.
Serbian Troops Outnumbered.
There were two regiments on the
part of the Serbian line that we had
seen. I asked Colon Nassich if he
knew what Bulgarian forces were OPP
posing him.
Yes" he said, and he watched me
carefully as 1 put the figures down in
my note book. They have the Sec
ond. Fifth Twentieth, Fifteenth, Fiji
ty-second and Fifty-third regiments OF
infantry and the Third, Fourth, Fifth
and Sixth regiments of cavalry. The
Fourth cavalry" he added proudly, is
the regiment of Crown Prince Cyril OF
Bulgaria" 1t was the first trace of a
soldiers vanity that l had seen
through the long day in Colonel Vas
SIGH. Here were his lines, holding
Monastir, that he might have been
proud of; here was the swamp where
three years ago he and his men
standing waist deep in water, had
fought the Turks for three days and
SdNtd the CITY ne OlOll SScIl PI
OF these things. But that he and his
two tattered, tired regiments should
be honored by having a royal regi-
ment of cavalry sent against them
was a distinction he valued.
ITS fine work for Bulgarians to
burn a village like they burned Lau
today" said a member of our party.
They're bad people sometimes,
said Colonel Vassich. Many times in
the last weeks they have crept upon &
battlefield during the night before we
have been able to pick up our wound
ed. and have killed the wounded witt
knives Back in Monastir that might
we heard the Bulgarian guns. They
were feeling out the trenches we hat
visited that day. How did it fare. we
wondered, with the old man whose
son had given him the knapsack? OF
the other old peasant who was using
"A gun and ammunition he had taker
from a Bulgar? And were there more
dead Serbians lying about that monu-
nnent which marked the spot where
la. 900 Serbians died defending Monas-
ttr from the Turks three years ago?