THE FLIGHT TO STAMBOUL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 78, 1 April 1878, Page 4

THE FLIGHT TO STAMBOUL.

The Times correspondent, writing from Philppopolie, thus describes some of the miseries of the flight to Stamboul in the middle of January :— lt was possible to describe the genersl exodus of refugees pouring out of Bulgaria and marching upon Constantinople early in last autumn by a free employment of the superlatives. It is cot possible by pen or pencil to convey any just or even approximate notion of wbat is now occurring upon the BazardjikStamboul railway line. At every station two or three long trains are collected, laden in a manner which, described to those who have not beheld the sight, would appear incredible and

absurd. Goods waggons, passenger carriages, and trucks are indiscriminately mixed together. All are crammed till every, available inch of standing room is occupied by tho tightly packed travellers. On the roofs the snowcovered, misery-stricken mortals crowd, between the carriages, upon the buffers; and . across the tops of open trucks boards have been laid to provide more space for the still increasing numbers that flock to the line. Statious have become towns, and to the main thoroughfares in Adrianople, Philippopolis, and Bazardjik, Fenchurch street on Saturday morning is as nothing. At Adrianople the sight, is perhaps, the moßt extraordinary. As we rolled slowly into the station the carriage steps on either side of the train brushed the piled-up masses of luggage, on and amid which the refugees were swarming.. To quit the train it was necessary to walk over these impedimenta. Iv the darkness the extent of the scene could not be calculated ; a vague impression of something vast was all that could be gathered ; but the following .morning proved that this was only too correct, and it was vast indeed. During the night ten men had died ; it might have been ten hundred without making any appreciable difference in the multitude collected there. The Turks, straining every nerve to carry on a disastrous war against an overwhelming enemy, are utterly powerless to stem the tide of affliction no rolling towards their capital, At TirnovaSemenli yesterday a woman killed her three little children rather than let them live to suffer in a future which pppalJed her and ehe dared not contemplate for them. In Adriauople mothers have several times thrown their infants from carriages or trucks while laboring under a temporary derangement of reason brought about by the troubles they have undergone. Frequently men, women, and children roll from the roofs they may have crouched upon for hours, and are either killed or severely injured. Two days ago a girl and boy, as the train was crossing a bridge between Phiiipoopolis and Adrianople, ft 11 from it into the water below, but were both saved by one of the soldiers on guard close by without sustaining further harm than a ducking and a fright. The most pitiable sight ol all, I cama across at Philippopoliß. Removed a few yards from the general crush near the line was a small dark heap. I was attracted to it, and for my curiosity I saw a little child, dead in the enow of a winter that could scarce be the feurth since its victim was born. The tiny feet were hidden, the small white face half covered, and the folds of the scanty clothing which had proved bo insufficient a protection against the long night'B cold were fiilled wi'h the flakes which had fallen in those dark, bitter hours.