Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1918-12-18
WARD PRICE
In the Chicago Tribune.

vranja, Serbia.-Here Is a story Of
cold-biecded butchery perhaps without
equal even In this war. II is the tale
of a deliberate. systematic effort by
the Bulgarians extending over three
months to exterminate the national
spirit Of Serbia by killing everyone in
the parts of the country they occupied
whom they thought capable of main
tanning IL
/ have gathered the facts from many
different sources and the information
and evidence establish Bulgarian guilt
beyond all doubt.
After installing Bulgarian mayors,
bishops, tax collectors and military
police the Bulgarians arrested In ev-
cry town and village all the men who
belonged to what may be called the
intellectual class. They chose parlla-
mentary deputies. judges. teachers,
lawyers, priests and employers of la
b, formed them into gangs an
marched them away.
5000 Sent to Slaughter.
Men numbering at least 1900 from
the towns and villages OF the yranja
region alone were taken in detach-
ments Of about fifty at a time to a
place which the Bulgarians chose as
their slaughter house. and there every
night one party after another from
December, 1918, to March, 1916. had
their throats cut or were stabbed to
death.
One village whose name the Bulga-
rians have made terrible Is small
place called Surduiitza. 20 miles north
east of yranja, near the bulgarian
frontier. i went there and saw the
bones, the graves and surviving rela.
uves of 1850 victims Of Bulgarian saw.
agery who there met their end.
They were locked up In houses
which saw, and then at night
marched down gully tied four or Ave
together with ropes they were stabbed
or bsyoneted to death and buried
where they lay by local gypsies col
ietted for the work by the Buisarians.
Graves Of hundreds Of them were
shown to me. Moldy human bones
were still lying about In a little
moldy stream bed where on one win
ter's night after another the slaughter
was carried out.
Every night the peasants Of Surdu-
!itza. who were forbidden to leave
their houses after sunset. heard mems
screams coming from q nearby wood.
The following morning fierce village
dogs would bring into the streets hui
man arms and even heads. which they
tore on the bodies Of the murdered
men.
AT Ushevtse, O hamlet to the north
of vranja. 40 men. women and chill
dren - the entire population were
killed 10 one day.
Roasted Over Slow Fires.
At yladichi all the women were col
iected and some of them violated. The
rest we're tied up and left until two
days later, when the Bulgars came
back and completed their work of out
rage.
Last year at Yelashnitsa and Kri-
vafaja innocent peasants were stripped
naked, tied down to bra1iers and
roasted over slow fires to make them
confess that they possessed hidden
arms.
Leblanc and Lesokvaty probably were
the worst msrtyred towns of ALL At
the forner place 20 persons were beat
| en- literally to death.
What Is to be done to punish this
eynically planned and brutally exc
euted policy of murder? The names
of the Bulgarian officers directly re-
| sponsible for these butcheries are
known. The peasants Of yranja and
Surdulitza utter them with the same
dread as that with which men of the
English west country must have spo-
ken OF Judge Jefrreys after the bloody
aSSizeS