Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1917-07-21
MACEDONIAN PEASANT
Is PATHETIC PICTURE
Driven From His Home. He Leaves
Suileniy, hut Is Little Worse on,
Says Herbert Corey.


Few more pathetic pictures OF the
sad condition OF the Macedonian peas
ant have been drawn than that present.
ed by Herbert Corey. the war CORE
spondeut, in communication to the
National Geographic Society. part
OF which is issued as the following war
geography bulletin:
Along the Monastir road there Is
continuous. driobling stream OF refu-
Eees-not many at a time. Sometimes
half a dozen will trudge by in the
course OF a day. Sometimes an entire
village has been evacuated farther I'D
the line, and nifty or so who have held
on to the bitter end tramp stolidly and
unwillingly to safety. These poor folk
never leave their homes until they have
been compelled to. The outer world is
strange and hostile place to them
Perhaps not one in hundred has ever
been twenty miles away from his
hamlet.
They pile their poor effects on a
donkey, put the babies on top, and
load the women with what there is
man OF the house always rides. II there
are two spare donkeys. the eldest sons
ride. The women always walk. Only
once did see man walking while his
wife rode the donkey. The road buzzed
with gossip OF it
They have suffered greatly, these
poor folk. Yet candor compels me to
say that at first sight the difference
between Macedonian peasant evicted
and Macedonian peasant at home is
SO slight that II fails to Lrouse much
sympathy. These poor folk seem to
westerner almost on the edge Of star
walton. The principa! item of their diet
is maize. 80 poorly ground by crude
water-turned wheels that their bodies
are repulsively swollen from the re-
sultant indigestion.
"A man with a yoke of oxen and
forty sheep is rich.
There homes are mere Enclosures
Of stone, topped with blackened thatch.
without windows, and sometimes with
out other door than blanket or a bit
Of Tapping skin. Often the fire is light
ed in the middle Of the dirt floor and
the smoke seeps out through the crevices
Of the walls and the holes in the roof
Baths seem unknown. and vermin are a
Yet they cling blindly to these
novels. When they hide themselves
from an invader they always choose
may watch their roofs. They cache
.oodstuns in secret places. from which
they take a handful Of corn or a cheese
OF eve milk at night.
when they are driven out the men
20 silently Sometimes they smile at the
soldiers in sort of a twisted. side wise
fashion. in a poor attempt at propitia-
ton The women follow at their heels
patiently. After the FIRST outcry
against the order of eviction they
never openly defy the .soldiery. Yet IL
IL Tn. women who must fagrantly
cixobey.
They return at night TO the aban-
do.@d hcfnestead. taking their children
w!,t them. To do 80 they must evade
the guards and tramp ACROSS deco
late country in the darkness. in con-
tinDal danger from the prowling logs
or fror! the rifes NJ the scntries. Some
hnw thry manage 10 do II. Humanity
Tequir@a that these little villages In
this war zone be cInptied 10 the last
human. for IN the rear liz food and
shelter. while At the front III only
starvation and danger.
yet little ~ little the Inhabitants
rickIe bach. A. first they are unob-
,rusiYe. Although MY may be living
in hamlet one aetg no more than
fpyr rr five at "a time Eventually they
, reaUrns their forner mode nj life. no
| far IA tina, In possible. Sometimen
I rheY I've IN the hidden Etoreg NJ food
! !;Dfn",irnea u III quite inprgsibIe u dis
! cp.cF hrw ihey i've at ALL"