Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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! | P Q M'v F BICES y THE NEW YOISK WEEKLY HERALD JAMES GORDON’ BENNETT, Proprietor.; Tho Best and Cheapest Newspaper Published, POSTAGE IBYR-IELEL OHIBOLLAB PtR VEAF, 50 CEN TS FOR 6 MONTH An Extra Copy to every Club of Ten, The N, Y. Daily Herald. Published every day In thejyeat X’o's'taga Free. $ l O pays for one year, Sundays Included. $8 pays for one year, without Sundays. $8 pays lor six months, Sundays included *: $4 pays for aix months, without Sundays. $2 paysfoT one year for any specified day ot tn $1 pays for six months for any specified day ot 1 pays for one month, Sundays included. NEWSDEALERS SUPPLIED. Postage Free. Daily edition, iy % cents i-er copy. Sunday edi tion 4 cents per copy. Weekly edition 2cent. per copy. Address NEW YORK JERALP, [anXMru OF EVERY VARIETY. Slid Music and Music Books, THE LATEST PUBLICATIONS. Musical Merchandise, Ar.d everything pertaining to a First Class Music House. TUNING AND REPAIRING, PIANOS, Church, Pipe and Reed Organs, and ill kinds ot Musical Instruments Tuned and Kepairca l>y Mr. C. H. Taylor, the best skilled und one of the most thorough workmen South. Mr. Ta.vlor devoted nearly fifteen years in the construction of instruments in some of the best factories in this country, and is the only authorized Tuner for the AUGUSTA MUSIC HOUSE. G- O ROBINSON & CO. ; IS5 Broad Street, Augusta, Ga. CENTRA!- HOTEL AUGUSTA, GEORGIA. Mrs. W. M. TECOMAS, Prop’r. This Hotel, so’well known to tho citizens of Clarke and adjoining counties, is loeatid in the centre of the business portion of Augusta, con venient to Post Office, Telegraph Office and Depot, and offers inducements to the public unequaled bv any’other Hotel in the City deo4-t£. J OB WORK OF EVERY DE- scriptien done at this office