WITH THE TURKS AT PLEVNA.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 241, 29 January 1898, Page 6 (Supplement)

WITH THE TURKS AT PLEVNA.

AN EXPERIENCE OF 810 GUNS. Dr Btax, who has just published au account of his adventures as an English surgeon with the Turks in the RussoTurkish war of 1877-78, tells us that his first experience of big guns in action was at Widdin, when a Roumanian battery sent a shell from Kalafat right into the hotel. Ho soon grew accustomed to these little accidents 'at Plevna. Going to cill on Sadik Pasha in the Bash Tabiya redoubt, after running the gauntlet of the Russian sharp-hooters “ potting ” from the celebrated Grivitza, he found the old officer squatting comfortably in bis pit, under an awning secure from gunshot, but not from mortar shells. One of these dropped into the redoubt just as the orderly was bringing coffee, and the tray and cups and saucers were smashed to atoms, though nobody was killed. Sadik ordered “ The same again, please,” and Mr Ryan had just got the second cup to his lips, when another shell burst 10ft off, and mode a hole in the ground as big ns a man’s grave. The old Pasha chuckled raightly when he saw the doctor, with a start, spill his coffee over his breeches. Another time ho was taking some ointment to a Turkish major at a redoubt which was commanded by a Russian battery a thousand yards away. “As 1 got up to our redoubt there were three soldiers sitting on the rear wall smoking cigarrettcs, and I called to one of them to come and hold my horse. . , . As I did so the officer in command of the Russian redoubt, seeing a horseman approaching the works opposite to him, thought it would be good fun to have a shot at him ; so ho let drive at me with three puffs of smoke together as I walked into the redoubt. One shell buried itself in the front wall of the redoubt without exploding, another burst into the redoubt, and the third passed over and exploded just behind it. “ The casing of the shell that exploded inside wounded a man, taking half the boot off and cutting the heel to the bone. He was a black soldier, a Nubian. I was looking after him, when someone called to me to come outside, and the first thing I saw was my horse quietly grazing about 50yds at the rear of the redoubt. Tho man who had been holding him had been cut in two by the third shell. 'He was quite dead. I went back and.dressed the Nubian’s heel. Then the Turkish major and I had coffee and cigarettes to-gether; and I gave him the ointment for his chin, whereat he was much gratified. Wo were so much accustomed to whole betaoorabs of victims in those days that we were callous to a single casualty.” The heroic way in which tho Turks faced death and endured suffering excited the doctor’s amazement and admiration, “ The real samples of national character, the tmn in tho rank and file cf the army, I found to be simple minded, courteous, honourable, and honest in time of peace; while braver men on the battlefield than those who fought under Osman Pasha at Plevna are not to be found in Europe.”—Saturday Review.