Welsh Newspapers

Search 15 million Welsh newspaper articles

Hide Articles List

19 articles on this Page

- THE TRANSVAAL.1

[No title]

PARIS FASHIONS.

[No title]

AFFECTION, INTREPIDITY, AND…

I AN EXCITABLE NEWSVENDOR.

[No title]

THE EXTRAOR DINARY CHARGE…

REWARDS FOR SAVING LIFE.

NOVEL FIELD SPORTS.

HORRIBLE SCENES IN PLEVNA.

News
Cite
Share

HORRIBLE SCENES IN PLEVNA. The special correspondent of the Daily News, now with General Gourko (Mr.MacGahan), had an oppor- tunity of entering Plevna after the surrender, and the scenes graphically described by him are of the most harrowing descript on. The following are extracts from his letter: PLEVNA FULL OF HORRORS. From the shoulder of the hill called Aroden, where the road winds around under the embrasures of the re- doubts whish were stormed by General Skobeleff with such fearful loss, Plevna was seen lying low down in the valley, and only one or two twinkling lights showed that it was inhabited. A'l around on every side the whole landscape was quiet as the desert. No lines of .blue smoke and little camp fires now marked the trenches. Not a single tent breke the bare surface of the hillsides, and only the great square redoubts and the zig-zag line of breastworks proved that this was the Pievna of a week ago. With all the vivid recol- lections of the various incidents of the siege the most active imagmatma could not picture the thousandth part of the frightful suffering, the awful misery and wretchedness, that are found within the narrow limits of the town, nor draw the faintest outline of the sicken- inp spectacle, the panorama of ghastly horrors, tr at is altuost. unparalleled since the terrible plagues of put centuries Human beings lying like sheep in the streets houses fled with dead; hundreds stretching their hands feebly heavenward for a morsel of bread or aj f7°Pt^ W,t f ,,n? he!p that could be com- manded to alleviate their suffering: or save the Wr^h« mC,vLaftUreF8 their painful death. Even 1B the midst of these scenes, which the pen of Dante alone could render, with all the terrible W.P°em aUrcting «»• with its SICK AND WOUNDED WITHOUT ATTENDANTS. I the sortie they left the sick E a T t6n ™re thousands, en- L iUl Pi dant.8,' Tbere never a regular rpS.°MdT.' tvtb'r*trM,ported • attendant W48 surrounded. Of course n hospitaU thought only of their TI £ E- LORTIE WASM8DE»ANDTH*Y Ivn-mifrVi thn "d • W1J. those who tried to break The day and night of the wir 1uffer€" received no food or rrh fAiTnori .3 lD& wounds were undressed, nmnminn entered and took Of Sf rd° day one of rejoicing with lotion If *uZar and the Imperial staff; but this LimPd to fhB V- f eV6Dt'howe™ short it may have Was s W season of horrible stretched thei, vT? Ched he,Ple93 captives, who hand9 in to"3* SXJ tK! J & blfc of bread ot a drop of alleviate theirn0r foe waa there to L Suff,eWD&s. or to give the trifle th?mfro,n a painful death, and they J x? j9'» and before the morning of the third day the dead crowded the living in eve^ one of ll7' "J ^hted rooms which served to shelter the wounded from the cold and wet, but con- fined them in a foul and fetid atmosphere of disease and death. SEPARATION OF THE LIVING FROM: THE DEAD. It 1' onv on the morning of the third day after these wretched, tortured creatures had been left to their fate that the Russians found opportu- nijy and means to begin, first, the separation of the hying from the dead, and then the care of the °RM P A. ^o^ues, the largest houses, and many of the small dwellings had been filled with S1CT *cunQed. Overcrowded in every case, and °ff f! 76 iu said' from the first without proper a temporary hospitals were, at the best, • y pestilential, and the air was tainted fninmni Undreesed wounds, and the fi^F^LI /ayJUn-buried the courtyards. The • entered in one of these charnel.houses ™ In!fy Tupks- 0f these thirty-seven Pitonim air. m&nJ others on the point of death, nainful ^L.;fn%Came from between rigid lips, and I'- f f ,op *ater. and some made feeble IT3A J or two Of the strangest with h VCk' and fixed their hideous, sunken cnmA tn ^^fecliing stare on those who had that it wmilH t,6™ the company of the dead, Bmftil Mom ,kave soften^ the hardest heart. The i J hghted by a high window with ,g 8' was crowded with the forms of nf tViooa ra £ !=ed, filthy, human beings. Many B were motionless, and scarcely audible difficult tl? heard from one or two who raised with iSS SLS t fb07 hands to their lips, to signify Same water °°Q were faint whispers of er • Some water J" piteous to bear. CARTING AWAY THE DEAD. This room is one of fifty where a similar spectacle is presented. The pavement of the mosques is covered with crouching forms some moving at intervals, others motionless and silent. Here and there the races of the dead come out in ghastly relief, with a fixed expression of great agony. Nothing can be done but to drag the dead from among the living, let in the light and air, and give water and nourishment in hope of saving some of those who remain alive. Small enough was the force of men who set about this painful task, and meagre enough their means. Three open peasants ox carts were all that were avail- able for the removal of the dead, and fifty soldiers to carry the bodies from the rooms to the carts, and bury them in the ditches. As fast as possible bread and water were distributed, and the feeble wretches fought each other with their last breath in their greed for the nourishment. Some propped up against the wall slowly ate until the unmistakable pallor came over their faces, and their eyes were fixed in death. Even the effort of eating the long-needed food was too great for their wsining strength. The living clutch at the remaining morsel in thedead man's hand, struggle for it with all their feeble power, and curse each other and wrangle over the spoil, per- haps to fall dead themselves before they can eat the bread. BRUTALITY OF BULGARIANS. The three open oxen-carts began the removal of the dead at once and as I write the work still g?es °n-. The hospitals daily supply more freight of this kind than the slow-moving teams can carry away to the ditches outside. The disinfection of the hospitals was promptly effected. As fast as possible with the small force of men at band the rooms were emptied one after another. After a day or two some of the Bulgarians were compelled to serve in place of the soldiers, and they set themselves about the hated task with a brntality terrible to wit- ness. They drag the bodies down the stairs by the legs, the heads bumping from step to step with sicken- ing thuds, then out into the court through the filthy mud, where they sling them into the cart with the heads or legs hanging over the side, and so continue to pile up the load with a score of half-naked corpses. THE "BTILL ALIVE" THROWN IN WITH THE DEAD, It is horrible to hear the conversation of the men who do this work. They perhaps bring out a body still warm, the heart still beating, and the flush 0, life on the cheek. One says: "He is still alive," and proposes to leave him without stopping to decide the question. The others cry, Devil take him! fle will die before to-morrow, any way. In *ith him." And so the living goes in with the aead, and is tumbled into the grave. I have seen this myselfj and the man who hae charge of the disinfection of the hospitals and burial of the dead, told me that he doubted not that such cases occurred several times daily. When the three carts are full they start away through the streets toward the ditches outside the town. The horrible load jolts and shakes, and now and then a body falls out into the mud and is dragged into the cart again, and thrown down and jammed in solidly to prevent a recurrence of tne accident. This heartless proceeding goes on in the public streets, crowded with the men, women, and children of the place, the soldiers, the wounded, and the sick; and after so many days of the same spectacle, no one any longer pays any attention to the transport of the dead. Over a thousand have been already carted away, and from the hospitals come about a hundred daily. LACK OF SYSTEM THE CAUSE OF SUFFERING. A long detailed account alone could give anything like an idea'of the climax and final act of the drama of Plevna. The town is full of similar pictures. Along the streets are frequently seen one or two wounded who have crawled out from the hospital and lie dying in the mud. There is no valid excuse for this wilful disregard of human life. The cause is evident, namely, lacfe of system. The Russians knew that Flevua must fail, and they expacted to find thousands of starving men there, and thousands of badly attended wounded. The surrender must have been, as it probably was, a surprise, but the day before the expected event was not the time to prepare for it. There should have been detailed a month ago proper officers to prepare everything for the care of the sur- rendered troops. There can be no excuse for the fact tbat only three open ox-carts can be found to trans- port the dead, and only a score of Bulgarians, who run away at every opportunity, can be detailed to perform the duty <>f burying the dead. Out ( in the pitin near the bridge over the Vid nre J uvouacked 15,000 or 20,000 prisoners, fighting for >r«ad> miserable beyond description, in the cold, ,¡ with hundreds of unburied dead covering the ground near the spot where the first attempt was made to break through and day after day passes and their condition does not change, simply because there can be nothing like prompt attention in similar cases where there is no idea of system. HORRORS IN THE VALLEY OF THE VID. But the horrors of Plevna are not all in the town. Some are in the Valley of the Vid. In the redoubts which the Russians stormed, hundreds on hundreds of still unburied bodies lie; the whole ridge of the wooded mountain, the valley beyond, and the hill further on, where stand the two redoubts overlooking the town, taken with terrible loss by General Skobeleff on September 30, are strewn thickly with the corpses of the Russians who fell on those days. Some of those bodies have been partly covered with four spadesful of dirt, but some of them lie as they felt Not all as tbey fell, for the dogs have torn away the linns of many, and t'e birds of prey have pecked at the skulls. In the pools of water lie corpses half decayed pale, withered hand3, and feet stick out of the soil on all sides, and horrible dead, mummified faces stare at one from every little hollow in the ground, and from among every clump of bushes. Some of these bodies have been put in graves within a day or two, but still the whole region is strewn thickly with these dreadful mementoes of the fight there nearly three months ago. n_

A THRILLING SCENE.

TOUGHENED GLASS TYPES.

IA COLOURED BABY SHOW.

[No title]

ADDRESS OF THE EASTERN QUESTION…

TOWN AND COUNTRY.

[No title]

[No title]