The Oregon daily journal., March 15, 1908, Page 30, Image 30

THE OREGON SUNDAY JOUIAtt . PORTLAND.' SUNDAY EORNINa HARtfl jy. !903
1
it-.'".',
V-.-V
It'
" " .' If in '
o
Q
ft
A
M
Tm
,
w
How Unfortunate Ma
cedonia is Giyen Over
to Murder and Rapine
HO would imagine that almost in
the heart of civilized Europe
the horrors of the Congo are be
ing outdone; that rapine and murder, crimes
of incredible atrocity prevail ii a section of
southeastern Europe, which all nations are
watching, where the victims are not untutored
savages but sorely oppressed Christians?
Macedonia! unhappy land where vil
lages are razed and burned by despoiling
bands of Turks and Greeks, where women
are mistreated, tortured, burned at the stake,
and men torn limb from limb. Unfortunate
country, where there is no protection for the
victims of savage invaders, where Christians
got to martyrdom while Christendom never
moves a hand!
A country which is regarded as the
choicest of the Balkan provinces, viewed cov-
.flSr s S
1 i n
Si&sia i o nil
it
m
cyettj
Bands of marauding Greeks devastate
etously by the rest of Lurope tt remains in the country, encouraged and protected by the
the hands of Turkey, with .the appQval of Turkish troops, who abet and surpass them
Germany and Austria Macedonia is a buffer n crme. Villages are pillaged, sacked and
country about which Europe is ready to fight burned. No one is punish id for the crimes,
but which no country dares, for reasons of JVo authority seems to care. In devilish in-
personal policy, to aid, and where 300,000 geuity the tortures contrived for the victims
Turkish soldiers conduct a pandemonium of surpass those applied to the blacks inKinr
barbarity, thievery and crime. , Leopold's African inferno.
D
ESCRIPTIONS of atrocltlei In Macedonia given
by a traveler in hie recently published book,
.almost beg-gar belief. The land, according to
the writer, literally flowi with blood; It red
with the a tain of murder.
. Strained relatione between Runita and Austria
over the construction of the Novl Bazar Railroad
serve only to complicate matters and accentuate, if
- possible. Intolerable conditions. Back of the crimes
In the unhappy country lies a network of European
Intrigue and greed. 60. while the greater and sup-
posed Christian nations He crouching with greedy
eyes, thousands of Innocent persons are being tortured
and killed.
That Macedonia Is a hell I have seen with my own
eyes," declares the traveler. And tlren he recounts the
'atrocities he witnessed.
1 saw things that appalled me, and I am certain
that if the reader tikd seen what I have, he would cry
shame that such an awful state of things should be
allowed to exist by any Chrlstjan power."
He made bis way to Fiorina, Kastorla. and sections
around the lakes of Presba and Ochrida. possibly the
most terrorised districts, and. joining a band of Bul
garians, Journeyed through various parta of the coun
try, regions Infested by pillaging Greeks and Turks.
Ravines were lurking places for organised bands of
murderers; behind rocks they intrenched themselves,
dashing down on towns and despoiling them of valu
ables. Murders were almost of dally occurrence.
A fortnight before his visit to the villag-e of Cara-Ja-Kioi,
not far from Seres, a band of cutthroats as
sailed the place, killing nineteen persons. Most of
these, according to the traveler, were old men. While
the outrages were instigated by a Greek band. Turkish
troops Joined In them.
It was night when they descended on the village.
With wild shouts the band came dashing down the
mountain side and rushed Into the streets. Within
an hour the buildings were burning.
Women aroused from sleep. In terror sought places
In which to hide, but were pursued by the ruthless
mob. Valuables were carried from the houses, and
while many of the marauders pursued the women
the men were attacked and tortured, a number of
them being killed outright.
Rushing Into one house, a Turk brandished his
sword, and at one blow severed the hoad of a little
7-year-old girl. A mother was found cowering In a
bedroom, a babe at her breast Two armed men
seized her, and despite her piteous cries dragged
her into the streets.
Angered by her cries, they tore the baby from
her arms and flung it brutally on the ground. Be
cause she resisted the soldiers, they tied her to a
stake. The baby was placed In the mother's arms
and secured with ropes. A fine was built of oiled
fagots. Boon the flames arose about her. At the
sight of her agony the Turkish brutes danced about
her In glee, shouting curses upon the Christiana.
The story of the outrages was told by two women
who had been left on the ground for dead.
Both the Seres and Menlik districts the traveler
found to have been visited by the bands, and the day
before his visit to one village there had been brutally
murdered twenty-three women, children and old men.
Unspeakable Indignities had been perpetrated upon
the women. When the traveler passed through the
streets he saw mutilated bodies lying along the road-
way.
The Journey, which he compares to a nightmare,
took him through the heart of Macedonia. At the vil
lage of Vranja, the hulkij of seven houses stood black
against the sky, mutely telling oj a visit of the
brigands. Nine women had been killed brutally
lined up In the streets and deliberately shot.
Three men, who had fought the Intruders desper
ately, were bound hand and foot and locked In a
house which was fired.
Such things are of common occurrence. The atrocl-
Y
OU have all heard, doubtless, the rhyme
about Jack bpratt not beinir ablo to
eat any fat and his wife not having any
- taste for meat that was lean. And per
haps' among your family or friends are other
fc?pratt, people with dislike of fat or lean meat.
So now listen to the voice of science, proclaim
ing; that Jack Spratt and his wife are both wrong,
that the meat eater and the vegetarian are equally
ai fault'. No less an authority than Dr. Charles
J, 'MacAlister, of the University of Liverpool,
England, declares that no hard-and-fast rnle in diet
can be observed, and that practically what is poison
to one is food to another. lie advises a varied diet.
7 J IUSaT
$1
LTIIOUGH the general principle holds good
1 that given quantities of meat, bread, mliK,
: cutter, sugar, salts, are necessary for the
V , , average man," Pr. MacAlister recently de
clared before a large medical gathering, "yet the fact
Is being witnessed constantly that a large man may
ha a very small eater, and that a small man may re
quire a huge amount of food to keep him going.
"Wt cannot help observing that while one person
may llvs mainly upon proteld-contalning vegetables,
together , with starches and fats and but little meat,
another regards beefsteak as the foundation of
strength, and .looks with compassion and concern upon
his brother who cannot or does not take It."
Prt McAI!ter argues ihat cerisla systems demand
certain , kinds -of food, that one should eat the food
which is. most readily absorbed; that the Ills of young
Mldren are often due to the withholding frfrn them
, t nods- they desire, and th Ills of old folk to the
i ikinat of foods which they have outgrown. The den
1m xays. ts responsible for many of the maladies of
iild, for by fixing teeth which naturally decay they
...... - ..
abstafn,d pe0ple to eat food from whlch they should
That certain foods do not agree with all men can
be observed in prisons, schools and hospitals. Par
,ly J" 'ndustrlal and reformatory schools Is this
evident. There, Dr. MacAlister says, the boys are all
active, do similar work, physically and mentally, and
eat practically the same food.
Yet It Is noticed that while the majority digest
the food and good food at that many "of the children
suffer from headaches, biliousness, want of ambition
and from chilblains In winter. The cause? The' food.
It has been found that be giving these children
less meat and more vegetable foods and fats they Im
mensely improve.
In one school most of the boys were anemic and in
111 health. An Investigation showed that little meat
was used. A revision of the diet, the giving of more
NEEDS VARY WITH INDIVIDUALS
-,CheimiStry' of the b0Jie8 of various persons varies
and while some can assimilate a great deal of flesh
others can take only a limited quantity Ev
. . ..vdhuum mo iieuuacnes. sJeen-
iness lack of energy. It Is because they do not eat the
food demanded by their bodies. n
The reason Is this: Combustion of the food Is morn
rapid with some people than others; some require a
TJt amount,, others less; some require the elements
of various foods, others thrive on one particular kind
Many persons become ill by taking what are genert
ally considered highly Nutritious foods; perhaps the
vegetarian who Is convinced of the evils of eatina:
meat is actually starving, for meat, while the mtat
eater remains thin, whereas he would grow strong and
healthy on milk or vegetables. Even among infanta
tfca doctor finds surprising conditions.
Love of children for sweets, in the opinion of Dr.
MacAlister, is perfectly natural and compensates for
their dislike, of fata.. The organism of the child can
more easily absorb sweets than fats, . and thus the
wants of children are often instinctively right.
With old folks the same holds true. Many old peo
ple .become ill because they eat foods which, while
they are highly nutritious, cannot be assimilated.
Unlike the carnivorous animals, man is a mixed
feeder, nd at constant balance should-be 'maintained lu
every Individual between the meat and vegetable
foods required. Appendicitis, he believes. Is often
caused by the Introduction into the body of unsuitable
food. .
To live normalland healthfully a man should take
foods containing constituents proportionate to his
needs. Thus Jack Spratt might well, benefit Just by a
little fat and his wife by a little, lean meat.
ties committed were of such a nature tha't they can
not be described.
Nothing more awful can be imagined than a raid
upon the town of Karadjevo. In November, 1906. Mosv
of the villages in Macedonia are small; the people
live simply and peaceably and possess no arms. So
when the Turks and their Greek brigand abettors
broke Into the houses the people had nothing with
which to protect themselves.
Houses were ransacked, women were assaulted.
Bravely the men fought to protect their homes, their
wives and children. But the bullets and swords of
the pillagers cut a swath through the wall of human
resistance, and th? men who did not fall were caught
and bound. Within sight of their wives seven men
were disemboweled.
When they had completed the awful work the
band fell upon tho women, many of whom already
had been maltreated and Injured, and ruthlessly kill
ed them all.
It Is Impossible to account for such utter cruelty
unless one understands the fierce hatred which the
Turk entertains for the Christian. And when he Is
let loose all the fanaticism of the ages, alt the bitter
warlike animosity of the old Mohammedan hordes
arise and alas for the poor victims!
To cut off women's hands or burn their feet la a
mere incidental torture which delights the hearts of
these barbarians.
At the village of Ghilposte. In the Seres district,
the traveler saw traces of a recent pillage. There
the wretches had blown up ten houses with dynamite
and had burned alive' four men, two women and a
baby.
OTTOMAN AGAINST CHRISTIAN
."The truth briefly Is this." declares the wrtter. -the
recent war between Russia and Japan, the ques
tion oCMorocco, the perturbation in Hurope by Rus
sian defeats and revolution, mo the one hand, and
the weakness of the Macedonians, made greater by the
rivalries between the Balkan nations, on the other,
have of late diverted the attention of Europe from
the near East. But this Is only a lull before the
storm a storm that must break in the near futura
and which surely will have a world-wide signif
icance." .
The storm will burst, in the opinion of the Writer,
within a year. Conversations with Eastern diplomats
and men who are familiar with the situation, all
convince him of this. And the remedy? he asks.
"There Is but one, the one advocated by the kings -and
princes of the Balkans, and the cabinet min
isters with whom I chatted, namely, to change the
present farcical so-called reforms . Into an adminis
tration under effectual European control by appoint
ing a European governor general, responsible to the
powers." - .
The present situation of Macedonia Is deplorable.
Under the rule of the Turk.it is the Ottoman against
the Christian; it is robbery, murder, outrage.
According to authorities, the troubles in Mace
donla are the outcome of the Treaty of Berlin, where
by the Treaty of St Stefano. which Incorporated
Macedonia In the Bulgarian principality, was an- '
nulled, leaving Macedonia .under the dominion of
Turkey, with a sort of autonomy under the control
of the, great powers. , -
Reform in Macedonia .has become a byword, a'
- .. ---' .f ...).-...
national joke, it was first broached-as It has al
ways been, on paper-in 1879, when Austria and Rus
sla came in accord with the recognition of other
European states as the countries most concerned, and
the sultan, with the purpose of preventing any ag
gressive action, graciously drew up a program of
reforms, appointing Hussein Hilml Pasha Inspector
general of the provinces.
,aA ecn1 P'oaxara of reforms was drawn up In
1903 1 by Count Lamsdorff, the late Russian minister
of foreign affairs, who had toured the provinces,
and the Austro-Hungarlan minister of foreign af
fairs. During his tour the Russian diplomat tried
to persuade the Macedonians to Deace but In 1902
came the bloody Insurrection which brought 300,000
Turkish troops Into the land.
The revolutionary movement In Macedonia began
to organize In 1893; the entire country was covered
by societies, headed by the central revolutionary
committee. Fighting bands were formed, men were
armed; the body was strong and formidable, but be
fore the insurrection In 1903 Intrigues and Jealousies
among the revolutionists resulted In Infernal disrup
tion and weakness, so that the uprising of Monastlr
In 1903 was easily crushed. It was a splendid effort
of the people, but a lamentable failure.
Into Macedonia came armed bands from Greece on
the south and Servia on the north, who pillaged vil
lages, killed the leaders, and, under the watching
eye of the Turks, forced the Bulgarians to acknowl
edge their authority. And the outrages have con
tinued. Following an agreement between the emperor of
Austria and the czar of Russia, an attempt was made
to intervene;. two civil agents, a Russian and an Aus
trian, were appointed to control the action of the
Turkish authorities, while a large number of foreign
officers were appointed to serve with the Turklsn
constabulary.
This plan did not work, and the sultan prevailed
tpon the powers to let their officers act as instructors
in the schools. Investigations by the Russian and
Austrian agents were frustrated by the fear of Mace
donians to testify In the presence of Turkish' funo
tlonarles; presents, it is said, were given to the
foreign officers by the sultan, and the entire plan has
proved a fiasco.
As It Is, the Russian-Austrian entente Is said to be
broken, and back of Russia, it is asserted, the nations
face Germany, whose ambitions In the near East have
lone been known. In the last quarter of a. cnntnrv
It is asserted, Germany has fastened her hold greatly
on the Turkish empire; the Turkish army has been
reorganized upon Prussian, lines, loans from Germany
are increasing, and the finances of Turkey, it Is said,
are becoming a dependency upon the German banks.
So the Christian powers. Instead of demanding of
the sultan protection of those of their faith and tak
ing control of the unhappy country, are crouching,
ready to spring, not upon the sultan, but upon one
another. 11 ' ""
The man who stands to gain all and lose nothing
by. this wrangle Is the wily head of the faithful at
Constantinople. His cleverness at this Juncture of his
affairs, is generally conceded. The moment that Rus
sia and Austria are at loggerheads, all pressure on
the sultan becomes Impossible.
So unhappy Macedonia may be doomed to He longer
under the Iron heel of barbarlo persecution.