 |
| Sultan Abdul Hamid II. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Monday, August 17, 1903.
CATEGORY OF OUTRAGE.
Bulgarian Government's Memorandum to the Powers.
TURKEY'S PROMISED REFORMS.
Story of Murder, Torture, Incendiarism and Pillage by Turkish Soldiers and Officials In Macedonia—Bulgarian Government Guarantees the Truth of Every Statement.
Sofia, Bulgaria, Aug. 17.—The Bulgarian government has presented a memorandum to the powers setting out at great length the condition of affairs in Macedonia during the past three months, since the Turkish government undertook to inaugurate the promised reforms. The most precise details, dates, places and names of persons are given in the memorandum, the whole constituting a terrible category of murder, torture, incendiarism, pillage and general oppression committed by the Ottoman soldiers and officials.
These particulars were obtained entirely from official sources such as the representations of the Bulgarian consuls and agents of the Bulgarian government, and in many instances the reports made by Turkish authorities. The Bulgarian government guarantees the absolute truth of every statement and challenges the porte to disprove a single charge made in the memorandum.
The memorandum begins by stating that during the past three months the Ottoman government has taken a series of measures with the alleged intention of inaugurating the era of promised reform and of assuring peace and tranquility to the Bulgarian population of European Turkey, but which have had the contrary effect of further exasperating this population and reviving the revolutionary movement instead of proceeding solely against persons guilty of breaches of the public order, the military and civil authorities have sought every possible pretext to persecute, terrorize and ruin the Bulgarian inhabitants.
Destruction of Villages.
Wholesale massacres, individual murders, the destruction of villages, the pillaging of and setting fire to houses, arrests, ill-treatment, tortures, arbitrary imprisonment and banishment, the closing and disorganizing of churches and schools, the ruining of merchants, the collection of taxes for many years in advance; such, proceeds the memorandum, are among the acts of the Ottoman administration of the vilayets of Salonika, Monastir, Uskuo and Adrianople.
The memorandum says that in the town of Salonika itself the Bulgarian professors of the university, the students and shopkeepers, in fact all intelligent Bulgarians in the city have been cast into prison.
One hundred and twenty soldiers entered the village of Gorna-Ribnitza, May 19, and tortured to death five men and two women.
During the first three weeks of July 25 villages in the district of Tikvesch were subjected to the depredations of the Turkish soldiers and Bashi Bazouks. The villagers were beaten and tortured, the women violated and the houses plundered, while the administrative authorities looked on.
In the vilayet of Monastir artillery bombarded and razed the flourishing town of Smerdesch.
At the beginning of July two Greek bands, with the connivance of the authorities, pillaged Bulgarian villages and murdered many of their inhabitants.
In the vilayet of Uskub the entire Bulgarian population has been systematically persecuted since last May. The director of the normal school at Uskub was imprisoned because his library contained the "revolutionary" works of "Othello" and Les Miserables."
In the districts of Palanka, Koschani, Koumanovo and Gostigar the prisons are filled with Bulgarian priests, schoolmasters and merchants.
During June the soldiers and Bashi Bazouks terrorized the inhabitants of the Schtif district, torturing the people with red hot irons. Similar atrocities perpetrated in the vilayet of Adrianople are cited.
Carnage, Pillage and Incendiarism.
Altogether, the memorandum gives particulars of no less than 131 individual and general cases of excesses and outrages committed by the Turkish authorities. In summarizing the specific details of the outrages mentioned, the memorandum declares that wholesale massacres were perpetrated by regulars and Bashi Bazouks in the town of Salonika and in seven villages while the scenes of carnage, pillage and incendiarism were everywhere terrible.
At Smerdesch over 200 Bulgarians were shot, killed with swords or burned to death. Over 260 houses and the churches and schools were set on fire and pillaged, the property taken being sold by the soldiers and Bashi Bazouks in the neighboring places. Similar scenes occurred in four other villages. The villagers fled to the mountains.
Over 3,000 men, women and children fled from the Sanjak of Seres and even more from the Sanjak of Kirkklisze.
It is difficult, says the memorandum, to obtain the exact number of Bulgarians who were imprisoned, mostly on the flimsiest pretexts, as when they were released others were immediately arrested. The estimates obtainable give for the yilayet of Salonika 900 prisoners, for Uskub 500, for Monastir 850 and for Adrianople 550, a grand total of 2,800. As information is lacking from many districts in these vilayets it is thought that without exaggeration the number of prisoners may be placed at even three times this total.
Dealing with other acts of oppression, the memorandum states that the Bulgarian merchants and artisans living in Constantinople and Salonika were ordered to return to their native villages and were not allowed any time or opportunity to dispose of the business or property. Some of these Bulgarians who with their families had been established for 20 years or more were utterly ruined.
As the order applied equally to professors and schoolmasters the Bulgarian schools were closed before the end of the school year. The authorities rigorously enforced the same order against the Bulgarian priests.
Encouraged by the Ottoman authorities the Greek bishops and archimandrites forced their way into the Bulgarian churches, burned the prayer books and employed menaces to compel the people to acknowledge the Greek patriarch. The archimandrite of Salonika declared in a recent sermon that the sultan did not want Bulgarian exarches in his empire; if they remained they would be exterminated.
In addition to the decree banishing the Bulgarian tradesmen from Constantinople and Salonika, the porte adopted measures to ruin the traders elsewhere. Every possible means was used to install Mussulmans in Bulgarian villages.
On the lightest pretext the Bulgarians were forced to sell their lands to the Turks at any price the latter chose to pay. Burdened with taxes, liable to perform statute labor for the Turkish landowners, the population is reduced to a state of serfdom. This is one of the principal causes of discontent and when is added the exactions of the tax gatherers it is not difficult to understand why the wretched people should revolt from such a despotic government and servitude.
In conclusion the memorandum asserts that the foregoing exposure once more condemns Ottoman administrative government in Europe. It says:
"Not only has the Porte failed to observe a single one of these promises but it has enacted sterner measures of repression.
"What must be the result of all this? Tired of waiting the fulfillment of promises of better conditions and driven to despair, the Bulgarian population have thrown themselves into a revolution which is now spreading in an Ottoman province, 150 miles from the Bulgarian frontier.
"The causes of this revolution are today known. The responsibility is fixed and the Porte can no longer accuse the Bulgarian principality.''
ANOTHER CONSUL KILLED.
The One to Succeed Another Who Had Been Killed.
Belgrade, Aug. 17.—A message from Uskub reports that Russian Vice Consul Mandelstram has been shot near Monastir. No official confirmation of the report is obtainable.
Belgrade, Aug. 17.—Dr. Mandelstram, who was originally acting consul at Uskub, was recently appointed to succeed M. Rostkowski, the Russian consul at Monastir, who was murdered. Considerable anxiety has been felt regarding Dr. Mandelstram's safety. The governor of Monastir refused to give him an escort to his new post, but later he consented to do so. Dr. Mandelstram then started across the country from Uskub. Nothing further has been heard of the newly appointed consul since that time.
PAGE FOUR—EDITORIAL.
The Future of Ireland.
The little island of Ireland, for 90 many years oppressed by English landlords, seems to have entered upon a brighter and more prosperous era. The island is naturally fertile and productive, but no one has had the interest in it to develop it to its capacity. The Irish tenants would not do so because it meant nothing to them. If the land produced more the surplus would all go to the English landholders, and the latter would not develop it because they were already satisfied with the enormous revenues they derived under present conditions. The new Irish land bill passed under the reign of King Edward will permit the Irish people to govern themselves and to acquire land and own it themselves, and now whatever they do to improve their property will be for their own advantage and profit.
 |
| William Bourke Cockran. |
W. Bourke Cockran, the silver-tongued Irish orator of New York City, has just returned from a trip through Ireland in the course of which he has taken occasion to study the country, the people and the conditions, and he takes an exceedingly optimistic view of the situation. He is able to speak with a large degree of authority, and his words will carry joy to the heart of every American who is descended from Irish parentage, as well as of every one who approves of fairness and justice and an equal opportunity for prosperity for all. Speaking of the passage of the Irish land bill Mr. Cockran says:
"The passage of the Irish land act insures the settlement of the Irish question, which has disturbed millions of people for scores of years. It removes all reason for refusing to let the native people settle the conditions of their own government, and this means that Ireland will forge rapidly to the front as a nation, even as her people have come forward through their own inherent qualities.
Ireland is bound to be one of the most potent factors in the world's government. It has taken years to get to the position Ireland will now hold, but after all, the years of waiting may not, have been in vain.
"Home rule was and is necessary to Ireland. The only force active in preventing self rule by the Irish people was the landlord class. They believed that their property would be endangered. That force will now be eliminated. The landlords will be equitably recompensed for their holdings and the people will be free to advance.
"I predict a wonderful future for Ireland. It will become a nation of farms and gardens, instead of bogs and poverty. Immigration to America will be stopped.
"As an earning proposition, the Irish are unequalled. As a working class they are away above any other nationality. Four Irishmen can do the work of eight Italians or of five or six Yankees. Working, earning and profiting for themselves, why shall they not be among the leaders? They will be, mark my words.
"The people there have for centuries paid even more than their earnings to the landlords. That left the people always in debt. It was impossible for them to lay aside a penny, or even pay their bills, in Ireland. So is it any wonder that the hordes invaded the United States, where they are free agents, to strive and profit for themselves?
"I do not believe the new bill will cause any exodus from this country back to Ireland, except perhaps in a few instances. Those who emigrated here are satisfied."
Continuing in his optimistic review, Mr. Cockran added: "The future of Ireland is in her own hands, Politics here have eventuated to a singleness of purpose—the freedom of the country—and I see no reason why such should not come to pass. The politicians, united under the able leadership of John Redmond, have the one aim and irresistible power, all toward freedom. Ireland will be free."
%20The%20Order%20of%20Patrons%20of%20Husbandry.png)
PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY.
Annual Excursion Will be Run to Onondaga Lake, Aug. 21.
The annual excursion of the Patrons of Husbandry of Cortland county will occur on Friday, Aug 21, and the objective point will be Lakeside Park, Onondaga lake. N. F. Webb, the master of the Pomona grange, has arranged for the following train service over the Lackawanna railroad:
Two trains will be run, the first one starting at Cortland and the second one at Whitney's Point.
The first train will leave Cortland at 8 a. m., stopping at Homer at 8:07; Little York at 8:14; Preble at 8:19; Tully at 8:29 and Apulia at 8:35, a. m., arriving at Lakeside park at 9:25 a. m.
The second train will leave Whitney's Point at 7:45 a. m., stopping at Lisle at 7:50, Killawog at 7:57, Marathon at 8:04, Messengerville at 8:12, Blodgett Mills at 8:23, Ithaca Junction at 8:30, and Cortland at 8:32, arriving at Lakeside park at 10 a. m.
Round trip fare: stations from Whitney's Point to Marathon, inclusive $1; Messengerville and Blodgett Mills 85 cents; all stations from Ithaca Junction to Preble inclusive, 75 cents; Tully and Apulia 50 cents.
Returning, the first train will leave Lakeside park at 4:30 p. m. and will make no stops between Syracuse and Cortland.
This train will carry all passengers for points south of Cortland and for stations on the Lehigh Valley and E. & C. N. Y. railroads who must take the regular trains from Cortland on these roads.
The second train will leave Lakeside at 5:30 p. m. and will stop at all stations as far south as Cortland, but goes no further south than Cortland.
Both trains will stop at Syracuse on the return trip, but neither train stops there going up in the morning.
It is probable that there will be a speaker from the state grange at the park and a ball game has been arranged between the teams of the Cortland Implement Co., which heads the city league at present and the Y. M. C. A.
Low Rates and Quick Service.
Suit the people and have made the Lackawanna company excursions popular. Take the Scranton excursion, Aug. 30, and enjoy the beautiful ride through the picturesque mountain range to the heart of the anthracite coal region. [Paid ad.]
.jpg)
Took Supper at Raymond's.
The employees of the Cortland steam laundry were treated to a ride to Little York Saturday afternoon by the proprietor, A. L. Gladding. They enjoyed one of Mr. Raymond's chicken suppers and all reported having an elegant time. Yager's new wagon drawn by four horses carried the party of twenty-four.
Death of Mrs. Schutt
Mrs. Amelia Wilcox Schutt, wife of Jeremiah Schutt, died of heart disease at 7 o'clock last evening at her home, 122 Clinton-ave. Mrs. Schutt was 64 years of age and nearly all her life had lived in the house where she died and where for years she took the sole care of her aged parents. The funeral will be held at the house tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 o'clock.
SENECA HOWARD
Died in a fit in Seaman's barber shop this morning.
Seneca Howard died suddenly in John C. Seaman's barber shop between 11 and 12 o'clock this morning. He was accustomed to spend part of his time in the shop, Mr. Seaman paying him for doing various odd jobs. He came in this morning soon after 8 o'clock and after a time began to complain of not feeling well. As he seemed to grow worse, Mr. Seaman went for a physician. He found Dr. Edson who promised to come up as soon as he could. When he came he said that the man was suffering from a fit from which he might come out, and he might not. Mr. Seaman then went for charity commissioner H. T. Bushnell, who on his arrival saw that the man was seriously ill, and summoned Dr. Bennett. The man was dead, however, when that physician arrived. He was subject to heart disease and this doubtless caused his death.
In the absence of Coroner Santee, Coroner Smith of McGraw was summoned, and ordered the body removed to Beard's undertaking rooms.
The deceased was about 59 years old and was a son of Thomas Howard, He is also survived by one brother, William Howard of this city.
BREVITIES.
—The South Cortland Sunday school picnic will be held at Elysium park tomorrow.
—New display advertisements today are—C. F. Brown, Ground mustard, page 7; Warren, Tanner & Co., Deep cut in prices, page 6.
—Through a change of plan Miss Lucy I. March will not sing at the open air concerts to be given at the park Friday afternoon and evening of this week by the Ithaca band of fifty pieces, as announced last Saturday.
No comments:
Post a Comment