Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1878 — A TERRIBLE STORY. [ARTICLE]

A TERRIBLE STORY.

Sickening Tale of tbe Condition of Affairs Prevalent In and Around Plevna After Its Surrender to tbe Russians—Famished Dogs and Vultures Feeding on Head and Wounded Soldiers. A London telegram of the 2Gtli to the Chicago Inter-Ocean says: Mr. Macgalinn, the correspondent of the London Daily Xe>m at Plevna, sends a terrible 'Story of the state "of tilings prevailing in and ji round the captured town. Before the recent Threat storm Pk-YUa was, sirtjny a .charnelhouse. Modern warfare has no panfnerfor’TT, and its horrors can only lie compared to those which followed in the wake of Gncnghis Khan or Tiinour, as their savage Tartar hordes swept over and desolated Asia. Tne famished dons, of which there are always large numbers in every Turkish town, were feeding on the corpses of the dead and the bodies of tbe still living wounded. The savage howls of the greedy brutes as they tore the putrid flesh of the dead and crunched the bones between their teeth, the cries and groans of tJie wounded as they vainly struggled with the dogs, might lie heard for mile 6 around, and made tile soul sick. Birds were picking at tile skulls, hopping from liodv to txxlv, with lieaks and plumage besmeared with human tilood, and screaming with fiendish delight. Dogs fought among themselves, and hird struggled with bird for the possession of a morsel of human flesh, and the most indescribable horror prevailed. In one house alone thirty-seven dead and fiftv-three wounded Turks were found, some of the former in a haif-decomixised and putrid state, and the wounded in a condition that can lie more easily .imagined than described. Some of the wounded were able to crawl about, and clutched at odd morsels of food that were found in the hands of the dead, devouring it with feverish avidity; hut thousands of them were utterly helpless, aml awaited death orsuccorwilli a* listless fatalism. One thousand prisoners were huddled together on the bank of the Vhl, and the horrors of their position equaled those of the great plague which ravaged Europe in the fourteenth century. Living and dead were piled together promiscuously in hea|is like wood, and carted--away. . There tcerg-only three carts available for the work, and the eonftision was indescribable. Osman’s bravery is stained and blackened bv his treatment of the Russian wounded that fell into his hands. The Bucharest correspondent of the llrrahl says that a fearful retribution has overtaken a part of Osnian’6. Army, which was caught on the march by that dreadful snowstorm. Fate seeros to be wreaking vci geance for the slaughter of the Russian wounded, whose corpses lie Uubuticd on the hills around Plevna. Two yocng American attorneys were wrangling for a long time before Judge Knox, of Virginia, bver a point of law. His Honor rendered his decision, and the “sprig” who had lost impudently remarked, “ Your Honor, there is a growing opinion that all the fools are not de&u yet,” “ Certainly,” answered the Coort, with unruffled good humor; “ I quite agree with you, Mr. Blank, and congratulate you upon your healthy appearance.”