Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1877 — Sufferings and Bravery of Turkish Soldiers. [ARTICLE]

Sufferings and Bravery of Turkish Soldiers.

No onx satAhe TnritJfiJwilUrs during* the- <»tnpdisl#js#X»)riiriP" in Servia could*have failed to*note two thinp—-tbrivMjevptijq want of the very necessaies of life Otbegr troop* would hgrii gfwnfalfid atbeiflgcpmpelled day qftqr day to lie.idle while their General -Wasted chance rffter chance and victory after victory) other soldiers wonld have complained .when ordered to attack; in inadequate numbers, useless: other men. would have said that a hard biscuit a day was too little's to campaign upon, and certainly Englishmen . who have urged the necessity of having Clothes calculfitiftlo enable theni to titthstand the rigwwnfa winter. Yet the Turkish soldier bore all his hardships withdiif a murmur. When he found his commander,would notmove he lay down and smoked’ 'till thd Pasha altered his mind; when h* wjaa. J cqdered to attack the Alexinatz batteries in front, unsupported’ by unsheltered from . thi) enemy’s shot and shell, he shouted " Allah [" ana went forward cheerfully to be ‘killed.; when he had no meat rations for forty .nine, days he did the best fare could lb eke out his biscuit with toasted maize; sad when the rain came on, and he had neither tent uor greatopat, he made a little hut of oak branches and eneamped in. ; the mud, although shivering with cold' and wet,.and rapidly succumbing to fever. ~ When the seasqn and winter came oh his' suffering dafily' 'increased. HaRP%, j uat then the RM,Grw» j Association sent out ;its admirable staff under Dr. Leslie, and they did' much !»/>s• A number of bullocks and sheep ryefe sent to the front to enable the men to bear the rigors of the climate a little better Beds were gat for the qick and wounded, to raise them (from the pools of aiua in which they lay, and teats were /increased in number; but this could only alleviate a part Of the distress, and, as the winter lias increased, in severity, tRe wants of the troops have increased. ’ Many of them were born fn the south of Europe or in,Arabia, and had hitherto been used to Suhhy climates, where little or no snow is«ver seen. Eot them;,to be taken to a district covered with snow, where the cold is as intense“4k in lhe south of Russia, only’ imperfeptly clad and quite unprotected from the weather, would have been bad eh6ugh hAd°6ven their rations been nourishing and good. This they are not, and thus in the Turkish lines in the Balkans a vast bbount of suffering «nd is being felt,. and men are falling victims to disease for want of the very necessities of life. A feeble attempt was made hy the Turkish Government to provide them with a kind of greatcoat made of the raw canvas from which tents are constructed ; but even this has not 'hdetf done in ajl cases, and many pf the, men have nothing but'blue calico jackets and pantaloons to keep put the iatehsb oold which is experienced m the Balkan Mountains. — Cor. London Telegraph.