Show sk how a brave bulgarian tf fl H ti S 1 soldier dy died I 1 e d gave his life for his comrades I 1 I 1 special correspondence with the bulgarian an army Is an absolute necessity for the shadow of the BashiBa zouk Is never far from their body and it Is not so long since the heel of the turk was on the neck of the people but it will never be there again whilst there Is an officer left alive in the land I 1 have heard tales from the life of old men who know the things they talk concerning those devils from asia minor tales that have clogged my blood with hor her and I 1 am tree free to confess that a bashi baboul on the war path is one of the last things I 1 want to meet Is it known that young bulgarian officers have been deserting the colors for many a long month past throwing away their military careers in their own land to go and lead the bands in the mountains 9 do you know that they have been dying unrecorded and unsung on lonely mountain sides sim div to help the 7 I 1 know this thin thing to be true I 1 have spoken with those near and dear to them who mourn them listen I 1 am looking up at a man who is telling me a story he Is swinging loosely in his saddle sitting half aside as cattle drovers sit when watching the movements ot of a herd his hand is brown and corded it is a man s hand and a man s face is above it just sach a face and hand as I 1 saw on the herdeck of an english ship of war a month back just such a hand and face as I 1 have seen outside american uniforms in the frontier towns of the states my brother was with the band he said halting in his english the turks to the number of five hundred had them pinned in in a cleft in the ains there was one man there aBul garlan he had been a comrade of mine in the service before he threw it up and joined the patriots to help beat the turks we do not speak of him openly not often hut but we drink client ellent health to his memory always we are proud of him and we revere his name it will go down in history that name the name of Su garoff he was always in the thick of the fight ing and his body was torn with wounds yet none nv v as in a fatal place courage courage conar comrades adeal that was his cry all the time dont don t waste a bullet shoot straight for the turks are many and the cartridges are few they did not lose heart not even when the last cartridge was fired they had fought side by side too often to be afraid to die together comrade after comrade dropped and died yet no man among the little band spoke of surrender the Macedon macedonians lans meant to die as boldly as their bulgarian leaders closer and closer the hated enemy came until patriot and oppressor could look easily into each other s eyes the turks kept firing steadily but now the bandsmen s rifles were silent the last cartridge was spent all that they had to hope for was five minutes of fierce fighting hand to hand moun tai knife against soldiers bay onet and then death and mutilation the burial that the vulture gives it was then my old time comrade the gay light hearted Su garoff the man whose joyous jest had made our amp camp fires ring with merriment taught the cursed infidels how a bulgarian soldier can die they were waiting cor for the rush of the turks waiting with ared bared steel for the onslaught they iad had smiled into each other others s eyes like good comrades and were ready tor for he the worst then Su garoff lying belind behind his rock apol e quickly I 1 am wounded and nearly spent my broth ers but hear me one must die now or a little later does not matter see I 1 have two bombs one for each in a moment the turks will lave crowded the pass I 1 shall leap aira S fr 1 F demir kopoc def ie recently occupied by bulgarian in sur gents I 1 among them and dash the bombs to earth and b 0 away a path tor for you charge when the stroke comes and win your way to freedom let those who live remember Su garoffi garoff with that he sprang from cover as though he had no wound sprang upright and rushing down dotin do the mountain pass wag was right among the astounded turks before they seemed to know that he had moved A hundred rifles pointed at him then A hundred bayonets gleamed turks pressed on turk to be in at the slaying b it no bullet reached Su garoff no bayonet touched him up went his arms in the sunlight up above his head then down again and the bombs crashed on the rocks in the midst of the turkish soldiery A yell of allah broke from the tyrant lips a great shout of won ler from the in bands flame that made the sun look sickly leaped suddenly I 1 into nto be ing men were ripped and torn asun der as though the lightning of the storm had struck them rifles were bent and broken steel snapped like straw A mighty gap was cut in the turkish ranks terror fell upon those that did not fall and before they could rally from the shod the remnant of the macedonian band charged down and swept through gh them striking fiercely to right and left as they pass ed sending the steel home to the hilt in their onward rush tor for freedom the path that Su garoff had marked with his life blood was the path that led to safety and they took it boldly and swiftly and Su garoff 9 1 I asked what ot of him the man in the saddle straightened himself and saluted while his upper teeth bit hard on the lower up lip su garoff he said great Su garoffi of him there was not left so much as a limb tor for burial he was to a thousand fragments when the first bomb burst we rode back to in the swiftly gathering darkness and neither spoke a word at the parting of our ways I 1 reached forward and touched his bridle arm god bless the memory of Su Suga garoff I 1 I 1 said and my voice was thick at my words the soldier stiffened in the saddle his hand went to his cap in salute a hoarse cry that might have a curse tor for the turk or a blessing for the dead comrade broke irom him his spurs went home nith mith a cruel jerk his horse borse plunged forward into the night and I 1 but what does that matter that night I 1 drank deeply to the memory of the bulgarian hero and to every american schoolboy I 1 pledge the name of Su garoff the mak ng rig of a lawyer in him freddy does not often have an idea but ahn he does he sticks to it tena clouspy for instance he came out with this conundrum the other day with a glow of self conscious pride why Is an eagle like a man everybody gave it up when freddy exclaimed with a chuckle because it is bald headed but said somebody all eagles are not bald headed that a just it responded freddy neither are all men bald headed ial 40 ar 5 bulgarian threshing ground really everybody s business much of the cruelty and wrong in the world to day goes unpunished or because those not dl erectly concerned do not like to inter fere they get behind that noble and self sufficient excuse that Is summed up in the very convenient phrase it la Is not my business it Is only another way of expressing an excuse that was offered by a man ot of liae dim and distant past who was asked the whereabouts of hit his brother A cruelty a wrong in any form is everybody a business baltimore herald wi 4 jt 1 |