Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1918-12-28
Cold-BIooded Butchery by BuIga-
rians Without Parallel
in History.
LEADERS ARE SLAUGHTERED
Attempt to Exterminate National
Spirit OF Serbia by Killing OF
All Thought Capable Of
Maintaining II.
WARD PRICE
In the Chicago Tribune.

Vrania. Serbia.-Here Is n story OF
cold-blooded butchery perhaps without
equal even In this war; IT is the tale
of 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 II.
have gathered the facts from many
different sources and the information
and evidence establish Bulgarian guilt
beyond all doubt.
After installing Bulgarian mayorsl
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 parlia-
mentary deputies. judges. teachers,
lawyers, priests and employers Of Ia
Dor. formed them into gangs and
'--Rafehed them uway. -------.-s-s~-af
5000 Sent to Slaughter.
Men numbering mt least 5000 from
the towns and villages Of the vranja
region alone were taken IN detach-
mcnts or about fifty at n time to n
place which the Bulgarians chose as
their slaughter house. and there every
night one party after another from
December. 1915, to March, 1916. had
their throats cut or were stabbed to
death.
One village whose name the Bulra-
rians have made terrible is "a small
place called Surdulitza. 20 miles north
east Of Vranja. near the BulgarianI
frontier. l went there and saw the
bones. the graves and surviving rela-
tlves of 300 victims Of Bulgarian saw
agery who there met their end.
They were locked UP I'm housesl
which / saw. and then nj night
marched down gully tied four or five
together with ropes, they were stabbed
or bayoneted to death and buried
where they lay by local gypsies coll
lected for the work by the Bulgarlans.
Graves Of hundreds Of them were
shown to me. Moldy human bones
. were still lying about In little
moldy stream bed where on one win
ter's night after another the slaughter
was carried out.
Every night the peasants of Surdu-
lItza. who were forbidden to leave
their houses after sunset. heard mems
screams coming from nearby wood.
The following morning fierce village
dogs would bring into the streets hu-
man arms and even heads. which they
tore on the bodies Of the murdered
men.
At Ushevfse. hamlet 10 the north
OF vrnnja. 100 men, women and chill
drcn - the entire population were
killed In one day.
Roasted Over Slow Fires.
At vladichi all the women were col
lected and some of them violated. The
rest were tied up and left until two
days later, when the Bulgnrs came
hack and completed their work Of out
rage.
Last year at Yelnshnitsa and Kri-I
vafaja innocent peasants were stripped
naked. tied down to braziers and
roasted over slow fires to make them
confess that they possessed hidden
arms.
Leblanc and Lesokvaty probably were
the worst martyred towns Of all. At
the former place 20 persons were beat
en- literally to death.
What IN ~ be done to punish this
cynfcalIy planned aDd brutality exc
cuted policy of murder? The names
Df the Bulgarian officers directly re-
sponsibIe for these butcheries are
known The peasants Of vranja and
SurduIitzn utter them with the same
dread an that with which men Of the
English west country iaust have spo-
ken OF Judge Jeffreys after the bloody