VISITED BY HIS COUNTRYMEN.
Ekim Milcheff of Razgad, Villaye
Dikilitash, Finds Friends.
Ekim Milcheff, Razgad, Villaye Dikilitash, Bulgaria. That is the full name and home address of the unfortunate Bulgarian who has been in the general hospital since April 12, unable to tell anything of himself. His English vocabulary consisted of "Arkansas, sawmill" and "me much sick." His left hand had been badly injured, evidently in a sawmill, and the index and second fingers had to be amputated.
F. H. Ream, spiritual director of the Helping Hand, interested himself in the man and endeavored to talk to him. Mr. Ream speaks several languages, but was unable to make himself understood with any of them. Yesterday morning the unfortunate man's story was published, and Mr. Ream requested that some Bulgarian go and see him. Several called upon the injured man at the general hospital yesterday, and the delight of the lonely man at being able to talk with a countryman was unbounded.
They learned that Milcheff has a wife Nidela Milcheff, at home in the little Bulgarian village. His next best friend in this country -- he has no relatives here -- is Netko Ruseff of Leslie, Ark. It was learned that Milcheff had been working at a sawmill forty-six miles from Leslie, Ark., called Camp No. 7. He did not know the name of the firm. The hospital authorities will correspond with Ruseff and his Bulgarian friends said they would notify his wife. His unfortunate condition may also be taken up with the nearest Bulgarian consul.
Milcheff, after his injury, was subjected to some rude surgery. He must have been shipped here, for he was found at Union depot. The circular saw had torn its way through his left hand, between the second and third fingers, almost into the wrist. The surgeon had tied the blood vessels with silk. He must have run out of that, as part of the man's hand had been sewed together with ordinary twine string. The hand had become badly infected and Dr. J. P. Neal, who treated him here, said that his suffering could not have been told in mere words.
