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SOUTHERN BANNER: MARCH 19. 1878.
A JOURNEY OF DEATH.
Uourko'K March from Plilllppolla to Hennanll—
Thirty Mile* Among torpaea—The Fugitive*
I.rising Baltic With Hanger, Cold and
Bloody Foee.
[Adrianople Correspondence London News.]
As we left behind us the rock hills
and picturesque city of Philippolis on
the morning of the 23d, and rode
eastward along the road, the first
thing that met our eyes was a num
ber of bodies of Turkish soldiers lying
; ii the road crushed by the wheels
of passing artillery, and trampled
into the mud by the feet of many
horses. Before we bad gom* n half
dozen kilometres the corpses ot peas
ants, both Turkish and Bulgarian,
were to be seen lying in thq snow,
and some of them had already been
exposed to the weather fur two or
three weeks. Some had blood stains
still fresh on their garments. Dead
horses and cattle still blocked the
path at every few steps, averaging
two to the distance between the
telegraph posts; and as we went
further and further away from the
city the number rapidly increased,
and hundreds of abandoned nrabas
stood in the road, and choked the
ditches alongside. The road, too
narrow for the immense trains that
had passed over it in hasty flight,
was supplemented by beaten tracks
through the rice fields on each side,
and there were traces of bivouacs in
the snow, which became more and
more frequent as we proceeded, until
these side paths were almost literally
carpeted with the debris of camps,
and our route lay between rows ol
dead animals, broken nrabas, piles of
rags and cast-off clothing and human
bodies for thiity-five miles of the
whole of the first day’s ride. We
saw the bodies of Bulgarian peasants
with terrible wounds in head and
neck, sometimes mutilated and dis
figured, women and infants, chi dren
and old men, both Turkish and
Bulgarian, fallen in the fields by the
roadside, half buried in the snow, or
lying in the pools of water. It
seemed to have been one long battle
between the peasants of both races,
in which the dead were counted
equally lor each ; l4it- while inaay
bodies bore marks yf^violence aijd
showed ghastly wounds, the great
proportion of the women and children
were frozen to death, for they lay on
the snow as if asleep, with the flush
of lite still on their faces, and the
pink skin of their feet and hands still
unhlauched. Side by side with these,
many corpses of old men, full of
dignity even in death, lay stark by
the roadside, their white beards
clotted with blood, and their helpless
hands fallen upon their breasts.
From the muddy waters of the
ditches tiny hands and feet stretched
out, and baby faces half covered with
snow looked out innocently and
peacefully, with sea rely a sign of
suffering on their features. Frozen
at their mothers’ breasts, they were
thrown dowr. into the snow, to lighten
the burden of the poor creatures who
were struggling along in mortal terror.
AWFUL SCENES.
I say the mystification increased as
we advanced, because it was impossi
ble to see why there had been such
slaughter of both races. That peas
ants should he frozen to death was
no more than could he expected in
the severe weather, for they were
traveling in miserable arabas, without
food or shelter, and with half-starved
oxen. iles of these nraba trains we
passed on the road, human beings
and household effects jumbled in
promiscuously. Upon the jolting
cars bedding and utensils were piled/
Women and children upon donkeys
and cattle followed alongside, and
behind for miles was a trail of wretch
ed, weary, half-dead Btragglers; old
men and women bent double, crawl
ing along with the aid of crutches or
sticks, mothers with infants at their
breasts, scarcely moving one foot
before the other—all this alter four
long months of flight, constant ex
posure, continuous dread of marau
ders, and the hated Muscovites.
Never did I feel so utterly helpless
as in the presence of this supreme
misery. I watched a mother leading
along a sick child of perhaps ten
years, a mile or more behind one of
these trains. Tiie poor girl could
with difficulty balance herself on her
naked, lialf-frozen feet. Night was
coming on, and the cold wind that
chilled us in our warm clothing blew
about the rags from the suffering
creature, disclosing emaciated limbs
and skeleton body. The mother was
in quite as pitiable a condition. Her
face and head alone were well wrapped
up. The araba train was fast moving
slowly out of sight on the distant
hills. A night on the road meant
death to both these unfortunates, and
their straggling friends ^could give
them no assistance, because they were
for the most part in a similar state of
misery. The mother dragged her
little one along, fast losing patience
as the darkness came ou, and finally
pushed the sick child into the snow
by the roadside, and hurried on
without looking behind her. This
was one of a series of similar scenes
that were enacted before onr eyes.
Money would do them no good.
Extra clothing we had none. Our
food was on the pack horses far be
hind, and what we had with us were
scanty rations for the journey. Does
it seem strange that at this time,
together with an exhausting sense of
hopelessness that took possession of
me, came conflicting emotions of
keen sympathy with the Turks, both
soldiers and peasants, as the weaker
and losing party, and a certain hard-
hearted ness at the same time against
them lor what I knew them to he
responsible for in the Bulgarian
atrocities? Here there were mur
dered Turks and Bulgarians side by
side, and while my liveliest sympa
thies went easily with the refugees,
whose sufferings were presented so
dramatically in the cold and snow,
yet I had an accurate recollection of
the long trains of Bulgarian refugees
that I had seen in the intense heat of
Summer in the region north of the
Balkans and on the barren hill sides
of the Dobnulsiha ; and, shutting my
eyes on the scene before me, I could
easily see vivid pictures of Bulgarians
under similar conditions ot misery
and suffering. I had not answered
the self-imposed question, which peo
ple most deserved sympathy, when
we arrived at the village of Kuril-
cesme, where wo were to pass the
night. This town, as well as the
three others we had passed on the
road, was nothing hut a collection
of empty buildings and barn yards
Like the rest, it has suffered first from
the exodus of the fugitives, who had
pillaged on all sides; next from the
Bashi-Bazouks and Circassians, who
had plundered and murdered; and
last from the Russian cavalry, who
had pretty well eaten the place bare.
Few inhabitants remained in the
village. All was despoiled. Even
the priest, who always has something
if there is anything in the town, lived
between bare walls, had no carpets,
rugs, bedding or provisions.
BULGARIAN PLUNDERERS.
The next morning, just as we were
going away, the head of a long train
of returning refugee families appeared
in the main street of the village.
Then followed a scene which is pain
ful in flie last degree to describe.
The Bulgarians gathered on the side
of the street in knots of three or four
and waited calmly until the miserable
train had got well into the village,
Mien from every direction the in
habitants pounced upon the exhausted,
defenseless Turks and began to carry
off their household effects, and even
the cattle from the carts. One poor
woman, leading an ass piled up with
bedding, and a child on the top,
found her property distributed among
half a dozen stalwart ruffiar.s, and the
little infant upon the ground in the
mud. The old men and women
clung to their only treasure,. while
the Bulgarians dragged them away.
Children yelled with fright and panic
reigned, which started the slowly-
moving caravan into a quick march.
All this went on before General
Gourko was out of sight of the town.
I happened to linger behind with Cap
tain Sukanoff, of the Hussars, and we
formed ourselves into a special police
force in an instant, and the captain
knocked one Bulgarian through the
hedge, while I settled the business with
another who was escaping with his
plunder round the corner of a house.
Soon several officers joined us, and the
whips were plied with effect, scattering
the crowds and recovering a great
quantity of the stolen property. I
must confess, however, that I could
not, after the heat of indignation was
past, blame the villagers so very much
for their attack on the Turks; for the
refugees, when they had passed through
the village, had plundered on all sides,
and as I rode out of the town I saw
several bodies of Bulgarians in the rice
fields, where they had been cut down
in the recent massacre, which num
bered one hundred ar.d thVy-six
victims. From this village to Haskioi
the corpses were more numerous if
anything than on the route of the day
before. The village we passed was
full of dead Turkish peasants, and on
asking the Bulgarians who killed them,
they replied with a great deal of
effusion and fiendish pride. “ We did
it. We and our friends did it.” In
Haskioi there were bodies of Turkish
soldiers in the streets nearly buried
under heaps of stones ’and bricks,
suggesting that after being wounded
and unable to move away they had
been stoned to death by the peasants,
and here also were hundreds of Turkish
families who, without arabas or beasts
of burden, had taken shelter in the
deserted houses. I inquired of one
of these families where they had come
from, and they said that they had left
Plevna five months ago, and since, that
time they had lieen on the road, and
for the past few woeks in a great catnp,
which we should find further on
toward Hermanli. For many days
they had been entirely without bread
or even Indian corn, and had existed
solely on the flesh of the cattle that
fell on the road. I gave them all the
bread I could get hold of, and they ate
it like starved cieatures, crying for joy
The grandmother, father and mother,
with an infant at the breast, and a
small boy of ten years, had not a
single shoe between them, and their
only baggage consisted of a*few old
torn bedquilts and a kettle to boil meats
in. They were in great distress of
mind, because jftehoiyse tlrey occupied
did not belojng To Jne^n, and not hav
ing any means of transput they were
unable to proceed further until fine
weather should begin. The only con
solation I could give them was the
assurance that they would receive
nothiug but kindness from the Rus
sians, and would probably find their
house in Plevna unburned. At every
step beyond Haskioi we met new and
MORE HORRIFYING SCENES ;
Man and wife lying side by side on the
same blanket, with two children curled
upon the snow near, all frozen dead ;
old men with their heads half cut off;
some Bulgarians mutilated as only the
Turks know how to mutilate, and on
each side of the road, broad con inuous
bivouacs deserted in haste, strewn with
househould effects. For mauy miles
we had been tramping in the mud,
carpets, bedding and c-lothing. Now
the highway was literally paved with
bundles, cushions, blankets and every
imaginable article of household use.
Broken arabas, too, began to multiply,
and as we approached the little village
of Tirali we saw in the distance, on
eitln r side of the road, a perfect forest
of wheels, reaching to the river on the
right, and spreading away up the
hillside on the left. Several dead
Turkish soldiers and one or two Rus
sians showed that there had beeu a
little skirmish there; and we rode into
the midst of the great deserted bivouac,
the horses walking on rich carpets and
soft draperies, all crushed and trampled
in the mud. The sceue was at once
so unique in its general aspect, so
terribly impressive, so eloquent of
suffering and disaster to innocent
people that I hesitate to attempt a
description of it. Hundreds of acres
were covered with household goods.
All along the river bank, following the
windings of the road over the hills and
across the fields, where the road makes
a sharp turn, reached this bivouac at
least three miles in extent, and of
varying width. Over this great track
the arabas are standing as closely as
they could, with their oxen placed
together. The frames of the cars were
In most cases broken in pieces. Sick
cattle wandered listlessly about among
the wheels. Corpses of men, women
and children lay about nearly every
araba, and the whole ground was
carpeted with clothing, ki-.chen uten
sils, books and bedding. It was a
pitable eight to see an old, grey-bearded
Turk lying with his open Koran be
side him, splashed with blood from
ghastly gashes in his bare throat.
Bundles of rags and clothes nearly all
held dead babies. Crowds of Bulgas
rians swarmed in this great avenue ot
death and desolation, choosing, the
best of the carts, and carrying away
great loads of copper vessels, which
lay about iu profusiou, and raud-soiled
bedding, with no more respect for the
dead than for the rag9 they lay on.
These scavengers would drive their
carts across the heads of dead women
and old men without even a glance of
curiosity at the b‘>dies. I had given
up counting the dead non<-combatants
early on the previous day, having
reached the sum of two hundred, so I
did not continue the enumeration on
the day in question ; hut I should say
that at least five hundred lay in the
bivouac; certainly no less thau fifteen
thousand carts had halted there, large
as the number may seem, and at least
seventy-five thousand people had de
serted the whole of their possessions
and had run away with only what
they could carry in their hands.
Sickened by the centinnation of the
ghastly panorama for so many hours,
we rode oil to Hefinanli, not leaving
the last of the horribly mutilated
corpses until we reached the very edge
ot the village.
small crowd composed
of negroes witnessed the
A Virginia Negro Hanged.
APPOINTING WASHING TON’S BIRTHDAY FOR
THE BANGING AT THE CULPRIT'S ltKtJU KST
Louis Hill, alias Henry Williams, a
negro, was hanged at Isle of Wight
Court House to-day at If p. m. He
Beemed perfectly composed and
reconciled to his fate, acknowledged
his guilt of the offence for which he
suffered death (an outrage on a
woman) and many others by him
committed. Hi-- neck was broken.
His last words," . re, “Take warning
fiom my end an l avoid the associa
tion of all women. I am gone. Good
bye.” A
mostly
hanging.
The Sheriff of the Isle of Wight
county told Hill a few days before
the time fixed for his death—Jan.
18—that there was no hope for him,
hut that an effort would be made to
get the Governor to respite him for
one mouth, in order to give him time
to prepare himself. He asked Ilill if
he desired to live until Feb. 18. Hill
looked at him wistfully for a few
minutes and then tears came into lus
eyes. He muttered almost inauda-
hly, “ Is that the longest time ?”
Sheriff Edwards replied that he
thought it was. “ Well, boss,” replied
the negro “ I’se got dis last request
to make to de Gubner. Ask him to
make de day de 22d of February.
Dal’s George Washington’s birthday,
and of de good Lord says I mus* die,
let it he on dat day.”
On the night of Feb. 12 Hill es
caped from the county jail. He was
allowed a fire in his cell, and on that
night he burned a hole through the
floor, dug under the jail wall and
crept out. Nothing was known of it
until the next morning when the
turnkey went to feed the prisoner.
Deputy Sheriff Edwards and a posse
at once set out in search of him.
About 10 o’clock on the evening of
the 13th lie was found in a kitchen
forty miles away. Iiis wife was the
cook of ths family, she had secreted
him under a mattress. Since then
he has made several attempts to get
away.
At last he expressed a joyful con
fidence that he was going straight
to Heaven. “You may hurt my pon’
body,’’ ho said, “ but you can’t hurt
my soul.’’—New York Sun.
—Five hundred tons of minerals
representing the resources of Cali
fornia in that respect, will be sent to
the Paris Exposition. A pyramid
twenty feet square and seventy feet
high, containing seventy millidn cubic
inches, will be erected to set forth
the mass of gold thus for obtained
from our Pacific coast.
x-aw XT ©TICES.
S. DORTCH,
ATTORNEY AT LAW,
Garnesville, Ga.
apl8-1873-tf
g E. THRASHER,
ATTORNEY AT LAW,
'Watkinsville, Ga.
Office in former Ordinary’s Office.
jan25-187S-ly
p^G. THO MS ON,
A , ATTORNEY AT LAW,
■ W 5 st
Special attention paid to criminal practice.
1-or reference app v to Ex-Gov. T. if. Watts
and Hon. David Clopton, Montgomery, Ala.
Office over Post-Office Athens, Ga *
feb3-1375-tf ’
JOII1V W. OWEN,
ATTORNEY AT LAW,
Tocoa City, Ga.
Will practice in all the counties of the West
ern Circuit, Hart and Madison of the Northern
Circuit. Will give special attonion to all claims
entrusted to his care. oct20-1875-ly.
Porn Barrow. d. c . Barrow, Jr
garrow Tiros.,
ATTORNEYS AT LAW,
Office over Talinadge, Hodgson & Co.
jan4-ly
(J l). ITITL.TL,,
ATTORNEY AT LAW,
Athens, Ga.
Prompt attention given to all bnsiness and
the same reapectfully solicited. janll-ly
Lamar Cobb. Howell Cobb.
g & II. COBB,
ATTORNEYS AT LAW,
•>M] J m,t. Hi
Athens, Ga
SOffice in Deupree Building,
feb22-i876-ly
Alex S. Erwin. Andrew J. Cobb.
gRWIN & COBB,
ATTORNEYS AT LAW.
|Athens, Ga
Office on Corner of Broad and Thomas streets,
over Childs, Nickerson & Co.
feb22-1876-ly
^8U BY G. M cCURRY,
Attorney at Law,
Habtwell, Georgia,
Will practice in the Superior Courts of North
east Georgia and Supreme Court at Atlanta.
Aug 8.1875 tf
James R. Lyle, Alex. S. Erwin,
Watkinsville. Athens.
( YLIl & KU WIN,
A TTORNETS A T LA IP.
Will practice in partnership in the Superior
Court of Oconee County, anu attend promptly
to all business intrusted to their cure.
jau9-3ro.
JACKSON & TOMAS,
attorneys at law,
Athens, Ga.
Office South West Corner of College Avenue
and Clayton Street, also at the Court House.
All parties desiring Criminal Warrants, can get
them at any time by applying to the County
Solicitor at this office. decl6~1874-tf
J> T. NELMS,
ATTORNEY AT LAW,
Harmony Grove, Jackson County, Ga.,
Will practice in tho Superior Courts ot Jack-
son, Madison, Banks and CUwke counties.
Special attention given to collection of claims.
Refers to Judge A. M. Speer, Griffin, Ga.,
and Hon. J. T. Spence, Jonesboro’, Ga.
oct9-tf.
yy B. XilTTLE,
* ATTORNEY AT LAW,
Carnesville, Ga.
upl8-1873-tf
BTTSUTESS CAROS.
fjl A. ILK It,
T7KTA-fcoHxxxaLiaceg & «T owolor.
At Miehael’store, next door to Reaves & Nich
olson’s, Broad street, Athens, Georgia, A1
work warranted 12 months.
septl2-tf.
,-IIAS. 0. JONES, JR. E. ® VB
JONES <Sc ZETV'rEJ,
ATTORNEYS AND COUNSELLORS AT LAW
SIBLEY’S NEW BUILDING,
•241 BBOAH STREET, AUGUSTA, GEORGIA.
oO-tim
I
CLAiai to have fhe Largest Stove
in this market.
t0 J‘ a ™ the H, »viest
Stove for the price in Athens.
I
CLAIM to have the Finest Ar
ranged and most. Elegantly
Finished Cook Stove Manu
factured
I
CLAIM thntjl can Furnish th
Best Tinware iu the State s
Cheap as inferior Tinware i
now sold at iu Athens.
I CAN Substantiate the a ben
claims and would be pleased to dc-
to any one desiring to purchase, (’i
and be convinced at the
SIGN OF THE BIG COFFEE POT.
Brand Street, Athens, Georgia.
J - c - WILKINS,
Ahead of All
COMPETITION
u 0. ROBINSON
H as jsut returned from a visit
amongthc Principal PIANO and ORGAN
factories iu New York, 1 lesion and other cities-
having arranged for the Largest and most com,
plete assortment ever offered'South, at. prices
ABSOLUTELY
BEY01D COMPETITION!
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