Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 17, 1915)
War, MEMORANDA Xavfer Sealer . 0 DRAWING THE GERMAN FlTtE. BY RUSE. THECAPS. - . : I I STR.UCK THE TRENCH 'FLAG 15 WAVED, SIGNIFYING- TOUCHt J J r 1 ' NOS COMPLIMENTS C'H'T'. OUR COMPLIMENTS ) H II-J4l - Jll.i'JUTJIl Ik. '! iV, v.i II fcl a VJt? 1 V VL. --SS-J3 VT V.i 11 tht trv FROM the front, December 2. via Paris. December 10. The plain of Flanders Is covered with snow. It has been freezing. ,and on the dry and hardened earth, the snow, insensible to the pale efforts of a. feeble and ray less sun. does not melt. The crackling of shrapnel breaks the monotony, the smoke lingering in little clouds, opaque In the heavy atmosphere of the now. Indescribable Is the dreary sadness of this overhanging sky, so black and hos tile. Some fires are rising from the villages that the obus are ravaging and the cannon thunder in a continuous fashion. We no longer take notice of It. any more than we do of the shells bursting near us. At one moment we cross the camp of some Hindus. They have constructed for themselves some improvised huts. Their tall and shivering silhouettes stand out against the gray of the sky. They have an air of surprise at the sudden change of temperature, and in their eyes can be read anger and a fierce desire to be avenged somehow at the inclemency of the elements. Suddenly on the heavy air arises a great crp; a convoy of German prison ers comes gradually into view on the route. It is a residue of a trench thaC our troops have Just taken possession of, the "Boches" march bareheaded, surrounded by foot soldiers (fantas sius). bayonets fixed. A troop of har assed human beings, whose dull eyes betray long privations and cruel fa tigues, together with keen disenchant ments heavy cattle without verve, crushed by pitiless discipline. A convoy of our territorials arrives from the opposite direction, coming from the trenches after a sojourn there of S3 days in the humidity of the slimy ground. But they have that which I know not what that something of nervons Joyousness that always marks the French trooper, and the contrast is striking between the resigned anlmal Ity or the one and the unwearied go of the other. The German officers to whom we chat are unanimous in attesting the im mensity of their losses. In the trench attacks one sees the men rush out readily to the assault four by four, arm in arm like so many automatons com ing out from an Inexhaustible trapdoor. If three or four hundred of these pas sive human beings must be mown down by the mitrailleuse, they will be. but the fifth hundred will have the chance to seize this mitrailleuse. Nothing whatever can give the least idea of the quantities of men that have been left on the banks of the Tser. The adher ence to this close formation of attack has given birth to the most terrifying hecatombs. They do not even take up their dead, they abandon them to the will of the river; or else they heap the stiff bodies one on the other, making an embankment with them for their trenches. The breaking out of their fury knows no control. They are constrained at nothing. Thev committed here the fol lowing act of atrocity. A few daya ago the Germans attacking a bridge, had put at the -head of their column some Zonave prisoners. Before this shield of living and fraternal flesh our soldiers and their mitrailleuse stopped short, ceasing their firing, when from the en emy's ranks came a cry uttered by a vibrating and clarion voice, "Tires done, N de ." At this sublime oath, the general discharge of our troops broke out; the ferocious and cowardly ruse of the Germans was played out, but the unknown hero was dead. It Is In scorn of the most sacred laws of honor that they Imposed upon is this horrible necessity of firing on our comrades In order to reach them. At the front war Is not so sad as at the rear. The nobility of risk, the de sire to vanquish, the singular beauty that attaches to the play of weapons, magnifies the darker aspects. Between the Joyous dash that throws the com batants Into the action and the bleed ing trail they leave behind them, the painful transition loses Its brutality, the ardent sacrifice of the living and of the dead is only continuing. One great sorrow is irreducible; that Is. to bring the tragedy on to our na tional soil and among our own people and things. Here we feel the intoler able horror of a transitory alienation of our ground and of our life. One does not realize altogether the "occupation," only at the place and hour of Its break ing upon its victims. i ' The war is sincerely victorious only beyond the frontiers of tty Victor. The allies prove this today in paying their successes by inestimable ransoms. Our last' progress brings us near a little village of Flanders. The Germans occupy it; we must fire on It and we fire, although knowing that there re main somewhere a few aged people and a depot for the wounded, not to speak of the belfry, the monuments and the houses. Well, we are there, the batter ies are ready, and the appalling ques tions remain must we destroy this town In attempting to crush the Ger mans who are iuining it? Must we risk the heroic and costly assault that will share the part of death and fire? How measure the sacrifice and define the exact value of the time and of the ground that one can pay only at the price of honor? ( Think of It, you who are fair, who lament the cruel executions and are as tonished at the apparent delays. The nightmare of invasion must be quickly dissipated. But so long as we move upon that which Is our own the fine attack that is' the Joy of battle is min gled with anguish and distress. There is on the front a flux and re flux of non-combatants. The trains of refugees who gain a free country are received with the pity ' and sympathy that is their Just due. There are also some who cannot or will not go away too far from their homes that are vio lated, and these sad caravans loiter about, at th caprice of the line of fire. It is necessary to find an asylum out side risks and suspicions. The brutality of the departures is lugubrious. At D the whole town had to be evacuated in one hour during the night. In the confusion dramas happen. One woman, distracted, runs along the column, pushing before her two children, weeping, crying out: "Gk and look for her. I have lost one; I tell you that I had three; go, she is there, and there!" Further on. a boy of 14 years says that at the moment when the last one quitted the village- there still remained his grandparents, paralyzed, both of them. He wanted to go and look fof them, but we have to prevent him; the village is inaccessible. It is be ing consumed rapidly. Happily, lately our liberating march Is but rarely and momentarily retarded by these iragio halts. To forget all that we must go quickly to the country of the enemy. For many reasons it is hot the hour to examine, to look into things. Nev er have the allies put into line troops Of equal number to those of Our in vaders. They have not sufficed to chase them at one stroke, but to crush them magnificently on the Marne, on the coasts of the North Sea, and to drive them back foot by foot. It is not by man to man that we must count when One sees opposed the forces of the Allies and the German armies. We have seen that very well. We hear of the heavy German artillery dragging painfully along toward the River Tser, In order to undertake again to smash through an opening to Calais. We are told of formidable attacks, as if we did not know already the full value of the German attacks by having repulsed them. On the line of Tpres at the sea the German army maintains the disastrous struggle, its Chief of Staff pursuing suicidal tactics. The Prussian Guard, the infantry. Wurtembourgeoise, are pushed in columns to the field where our artillery is mowing. "We are weary of killing," said an artillery Captain the other evening. Of the numbers that have been pub lished, that seem exaggerated 10,000, 12,000, 15.000 gray capotes fallen in SO hours for those who have been wit nesses these figures are weak. Never has the Prussian impulse, al ways brutal, been so irrational. The German cannon are spoiled by over use. They were employed during the first few weeks with so much care lessness that they have suffered. The bad quality of the ammunition, fever ishly made, is notorious. The other day at P three shells out of 27 ex ploded. At the beginning of the war the English artillery was not what it is at present. Now the heavy cannon of our allies make terrible ravages. 'As for the excellence of the French artillery, its cannon, and notably Its mighty No. .75, do wonders eVery day. The work that remains to be done is of the hard Jest. We have before us armies that rise up in the energy of despair. But never mirid, the spirit, of our adver sary is no 'longer intact. Its confi dence Is touched. Its elan, that relied on its force, is broken. , Passed by censor. V. T. FROM THE FRONT, via Paris In these last eight days the Germans have made, from the Lys to the North Sea, a desperate effort. It was around this strategic position of Tpres a new mad rush, the most intense and infuriated of the campaign, centered. v It was, in part, the English who ac complished this repulse, and they did it with their fine' sangfroid and habitual intrepidity. At one moment they let the enemy advance, already seeing victory, then they slew them at leisure. The Germans were prodigal with their ammunition; they sacrificed some thousands of men. However, they did not seriously shake our front. They only obliged us to evacuate Dixmude. Dixmude exists no longer except in name. Since October 16. the date on which the first German obus fell on the town, the church and its turret, the assembly-rdoms and the belfry, the solitary convent and its old chapel with mingled the dust of their stones wun the mud of the roads. They are in Where Doaie. us V rHiACfOMPANYlNGlSRAWIWGS ARE L1KENESSES" OF SEVERAL GERMAN GENERALS II K HADE OWEETSBY AYNG TRENCH SCULPTOR MOW UTHE TRENCHES HlrPT our allied armiea have Just registered. An army corps is a great family. For three months we have encountered each other at the crossroads. In the woods. In the cantonments, on the field of battle. We have had time to recognise one an other. No work disgusts us. When I see men of high society, a shovel in hand, conscientiously hollow ing out a trench, then I comprehend the meaning of the word "equality." It Ik surprise, when one opens a newspa- ta mm with what adoration the sol diers are spoken of. The heroes! No, the heroes are dead. Those who live are ike you and me. But there are more heroes. Their name is Legion. io get accustomed and to know how to train one's self that is all. Evidently many disappear at the very moment of -success. Like th horse of Don Quixote, that accommodated itielf not to eat when he had to die. There la, how ever, a school of courage by which we must pass in order to learn Its virtue. The first reaction of courage is to scorn the enemy and mock at the adversary who Is not agile enough to kill you. Nothing must prejudice the courage will prove one's neighbor. I know some natures, Indolent, timid, shy, mat are suddenly seized by a strong energy. Is a matter of mysterious p.ycnoio.r. then the 'courage is equally training. The example of the chiet, Al bert of Belgium, whose birthday we lately celebrated, a soldier King, who familiarly mixes with his soldiers, his brethren, leading them to the attack, even being their orderly. One day we dlstlnKulshe.1 a men who. completely equipped, slept lying on bundle of straw. This wss the Kin. What Is so touching In the situation rendered to the chlof of a llltle coun- of which the sovereignty is no longer exercised, save on a territory of a few square yards, eud who appears ....... in htm rfiHtrf.iia than some others do In triumph. Is that he has accepted It And ruins, vast ruins. Between NieupOrt and Dixmude th hare advances cautiously, its large inundations forced the Germans to phosphorous eyes wide open In the abandon their trenches that were in- night. ... vaded by water. ThlB part of the coun- Elsewhere, In the infinity of the trv is transformed into a frightful cess- country, some vague noioes ....,. flint stone rolls, one knows not why. they had been struck at the moment """" and ail at once tne son iooiswp i . - """ . ... flat we.oon into the stomach of the that he nas mau --"""" ., turTeo'lnTowtrd thVchests. teeth dul!. Frenchman. A blood-curdling group the inv a. on wlt th." grimace, of greenish wax. and the standing upheld by the wall, of th, . i it. "" , rtgard of duty. mouths appearing like black holes. ' trenches, tragic manikins furiously given word ano out o . Of the dead, sunken In the mud, some slain there, and who anpear stm like bMn rent ,t .nsformed into a ingnuui r5. . J,. . ... , in buried In the enemies, even after death, norror pen- "-.-"--.. .h- v..r who have pool, in which are engulfed piece. er.je - k.rn Certain ones etrates us. T' ,tocn 1XT. arfrom o us "that we have there We -j sam-Vcrne e 'ZK? F "'"aTth. these humid grounds, not allowing an many hours. One has thirst, one would heel, tnei neao t in itne ua A pointed helmet topples and roll, have seen all th11trM'ou wno advance to thVenemy-. positions. The drink the mud of the ruts if one dared, hand. They . b if pleadi ngn P from , o tn. bodle1, tn. beauties suMlm. , of th. mist prevents anything whatever being But to drink is to move, and we murt J""" TBe" Very We wlthdraw. not without turning th. have 0"P'"a AMrt I. seen at a few yards' distance. All at remain immobile like the stones, and cry out. , . . hMd Hb, to time to ,ook at thl. become tender in th In kin o f A 1 once a pale sun pierces the veil. And as slient ... m one trench were two men. bay- wild scene, lighted by the rays of the Chevalier of the Rl gnt.K "tTs IT TnrnTucceed Soon, in.a second or so. the struggl p 6n nZ facece!' The TTZ TZ bV t- C.. JL , TSXXX "aHf spe III rblasn! -17 U . njc7 Tm ranks houettes oscillating, th mount stum- ,a- xTT- -l-AT 0utof that path rf : rE.r jstx ssTsrssr jt2w the romance of coal .... - I ZZZlSc wttlh tne InstScliV- we must harden ourselves, calm the . gas began It flaming career, .oft coal hnaf destruction Some blue bodies pulsations of the arteries, count the - CRQS3 the continent comes the news nation of a continent. Lay 110.000.000 Una. w.re again treated a. a de.pl.e4 th?ow theses headlong and sink, beats of the heart that strike against A that a Colorado gold mine has pro- at your doorstep In the shape of coal doormat But gn. soon fin . shed V duXsW hTpassaie The enemy at the ground in our breasts. . . . ' ,23.000.000 in 15 years. The news- and you kick It out of the way meteoric Journey. h le bituminous I t yfrte S us off with their Toward a o'clock an officer comes. devote consideraDle epace tell- Poetry and story still wreathe the ,tm plods 8teaJlly on t. way a. he a" x.hiT, th.., am- pulls me by the sleeve. . . . "Will f . Dakota ye gelded California forty-niners, but who recalls world. foremo,t fuel for .teaming f """f " you," he asks me in a low voice, see 0000oo of the yellow metal. the birth of anthractie. which has been purp0ses. . . . .ti!r.o. hit vnii have never seen ,, A ,v, . UUU.UUU OI LUC VOUUW UJVM.., - - fi.(.w-." ... ,,u,. . ( ... ..l.hl. lhn ill iiltrri'l ... that th tnrto ft. ha. w.Mrtiv ihe distance diminishes, sometnmg mat ---- , Romance clings around tne glories oi "" jvnu w i"""- - " , Th! the terrible "hand-to-hand On6 before? And nulling me by the hands k and tne BIack Hl but BOld7 won more than one r.ce. I can point longer the fruiae; the bay be makes me descend the edge of the u . w " ' t the fact that me are now paying : . ,k hnnlnr fhpm- plain, on au smes arc Tania'a coal mines could buy and sen wiia over mo c'. ' - iijuw an aero - ------ onets do their work, burying them - w6unded. My 8 " BQ., troleum. men wouldn't even take the I,,,,.,, ,al. which they refu.ed to T JS ' - JT xo. Twl.tt ROM. drag, me along. Jumping a dltch d trouble to insert tb? on. word coal in purche , th crie. of PfV.nro?rud1ng glassy wi-V. at each Instant the .olea of my the prayers of the protruding glassy something slimy. unuuiBuui, uwu - - HV1VMII1B i-..l.t. A Ia v li a nna wnrn ("OKI in t aa lira UUSVU lUilCD. , 1" There i. no other mineral romance their leases of land. They were out Philadelphia Ledger. ivtv that matrhaji th A for OIL " 90g at $50. - M in mis countrjf mai uiaivuwj w- . - . i -a RiulilAn V. flltflnOJ II K 1.11 0 a.uj J .nmana tlT n Vi VB.I11& CO&L IVeT" iJUfc v v . v. , fs nlcnt. uuniuieio neuv..c. " , Imm av..-""- Friends and enemies appear asleep 100 guide stop, and says sofUy. Tt is tricnas an wait a minute. Presently, when yaras me .'TZ., "r.,.. mnnn show, itself, you will See." ball sent Dy wri biujjw " '"ji'lu - . , . uaji bin. ' t.sva nim T xtfetch out tnf arm; the t. . H.rk night. One hiusl ware of the enemy, who may be lurk ing about the camp space and that Is alL Like nim, i Btrewu ...j o...., year WOuid scarcely pay dark night. One must be- contact of something cold make, ma antnracite mined in one small district . . v ,. -Htniraw It instinctively. But when - ...!,.,,. The man who would , . i . nil JnhnnU Steele romantically stone estate coin uu.a wcc. ww.w Uw, . than all the American States combined, made in petroleum some Berwind ha. All the gold dug from the earth this coinod ten out of the much-despised year would scarcely pay lor nail ine miumuu They were Quite a Pardonable Mlafaae. Houston. Tex.. Chronicle. Tickets," .aid the collector a. hi opened the door of the car tn which sat man who looked a. ne w. light. One hlttst be- contact i mra.u. - ancnraciie u ou... , ... - . cnoreo io wn. may be lurk- withdraw it instinctively. But when of pennByIvania The man who would romance of Pennsylvania black oyer th o w .r. Tw aentlnela the moon clears from the clouds and t our Bott coai for the silver out- diamonds. Thomas Fisher, who knows teL Thtttl jookir , Z Jmi uard. but we remain lighU the place where we are I recoil. t f the .tates would ln.tanUy coal a. any mother know, ner own Ueot ,M. n. ther, only must mount guaro, but we remain a presence of a :,t Mmit to an Investieation in baby, told how his father and other. ... rr. enveloped by tne noiww o w "1L. Reticle that I have before my eyes. like him could have leased thousands The grass touches the enemy's soldier, ven body In th. United State, of acre, of bltuminou. land, during the . v.Mr, Some rows of U16 enemy's soioiera jf everv'bocy In the United states oi acres oi uuuuim-u. " our charged arms are heavy between ;ome ro Dy mltralllfc close. ".l hat it would Just about oil craze and got it for nothing. But our fingers and our eyes peer during were We. , dropped J t RWa by tne ,ure 0f long hours into the darkness of the one . th " W , 7 and the far more valuable coal night The alertness, th. spirit, the but standing, scarcely wen - 1914. To , buy an the gc ... snver , w -, ri,iRion. must not be weakened. Amid cUning against ec of tne couutr,, ".",Z.t r-h,it t PlnProve. re- Torglei in fallins to the ground, a talking about thi. . Th man handed Pennsylvania black Tasteboard. which wa. duly looking aroand. the collector .aid: "I. there another gen tleman In the earr" "No." "I. that other portmanteau yoi.r. then, tooT "Other portmanteau?" -Vm; on the floor thore by th other." Those," said the traveler with dig. &"r?Z KiSS Ser-V aaiu'u acuuykin nit, "ar. t- f fS3 109.0"