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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 13, 1914)
u THE .OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORTLAND, SUNDAY" MORNING, DECEMBER ,13, 1914. AS HE SAW: IT KREISLER WOUNDED, TELLS OF WAR Master Violinist, Now Here, De scribes Terrible Life of the Soldiers in the Austrian , .v" .... I Trenches. N" JSW YORK Shortly after the outbreak of the European war news was received In this coun try that, Fritz Kreisler, the world's . greatest violinist. - had Joined the Austrian regiment of which he was a member and had gone, to the front. Kreisler is well known In this country, and the news was received with' great regret, which, was Intensi fied when & report came that he had been . killed. Although this was only In- the form of arumor, there were many people who believed it,' and the thousands of music lovers who did not quite credit It were nevertheless con firmed in their anxiety for the safety of the artist.. Later came the definite news that he had been wounded be fore Leinberg and removed to a hos pital .which, under the circumstances, was good news. I Ftitx Kreisler and his American wife walked down the gangplank of a Dutch steamer recently and landed safe' in Vt York. The artist leaned on a rubber tipped cane and walked slowly, with a limp, because his hip had been torn by the lance of a Cossack who rode him down in the trenches; and there is a slight stiffness in the right shoulder, where he was lamed, prob ably by the leg of the horse that knocked .him down." But he is to all Intents and purposes able to appear on the concert plat form and. play as usual. His shoul der does not bother him; and the arm and wrist that draw the! wonderful virile tone from his violin and thd fingers of the left hand that mold its' tones have escaped through great for tune, even though they were risked as readily as the leg whose injury makes him carry a cane. The interviewer who was sent to atsk Mr: Kreisler to tell his war experi ence was not altogether a stranger to tho artist and his personality, conse quently he outlined on his way to the Hotel Netherland Just what difficul " ties he would be confronted with, and, sure enough, they were there. Kreisler is one of the men about whom it can truly be said that he-isr unaffectedly and innately modest; also, that he Is hugely sincere in oth er words, not at all the man to get a good story out of when he is the hero. That phrase Is pattered, off about a good many men. It happens to be true of Kreisler. For the benefit of any one who does not know, it may be as well to say here that the violinist does not In .the . remotest way resemble the type that . passed In the pre-modern era as the . musical virtuoso. Those who go to the concert halls will know this; and - for the others it will be valuable to point out that a new order of things exists. Kreisler is an upstanding man of sturdy figure, with heavy shoulders and neck and an easy gait, who gives the Impression at first sight that he has, as followers of the fistio art would say, a "wallop ,ln either mitt." He looks as If he would, have the bet ter of the average man in strength and endurance. ' AH these things should be remem bered as the story of how the world famous virtuoso turned soldier at a moment's ' notice Is considered. One other thing should also be borne In 1 mind, namely, that Mr. , Kreisler is recognised as a keen observer and a close reasoner, and that the impres sions of such a man, pointed as they are by ; the vision and imagination of a highly sensitive artist, should afford some Interesting first hand evidence on the psychology of the battlefield. As nearly as it can be pieced to gther. this is what Frits Kreisler told of his experiences as a soldier and his resulting reflections: , - Ordered to the Front, i "After having given concerts in Franca and Germany during the sum mer I was on my wajf, from Switzer land with Mrs. Kreisler when I learned of the declaration of war between Austria and Servia, As I am an of ficer In the third Infantry regiment Of the Landsturm, I immediately went to Vienna and reported. - We spent two weeks there and at Grata in prep aration and then my regiment was ordered to the neighborhood of -Lera- berg, in Gallcla. We got to the fight ing line about August 16. "Our orders here were to hold our positions at any cost and you know v what that means. We were two army corps to seven of the Russians, and ' our task was to hold them back until our reinforcements came up, That meant fighting day and night with ' out rest. "It is all a vague, blurred impres sion in my mind: I cannot call it even a nightmare, for it lacks the .definite impression that a nightmare sometimes creates. You will see what t mean shortly. -For instance, -when yon hear the first shell burst, It la a terrible thing; the whining in the air, the deafening crash, and the death it spreads around it. That is what you think, of your first- sljell. But you think less of the second and third, and after that they pass out of your . mind. .. "The first man you see die affects you terribly'. I shall not forget mine. . He eat la trench and, suddenly he I v 1 ' ' - S.. -'! . .- I nsMA&itiaiiitikM-i w muti r'irti wtfn ri iiim mi i ioi mi itwiriiliW,.m-niii-' gnki Imrmii 11 1 nimtnii in n ir -tn iimnnii mi i 11 i i n am in m mi in nn --nm I - - - it i mhihi' -'ww i i f l Krcislar and. officara of begran to cough two or three times like an old man. A little blood showed at his mouth and then he toppled over and Jay quiet. That was all. "Very shortly none of; these things affect you. It has made me mournful when I; have thought how quickly we all threw over everything the cen turies have taught us. One day we were all ordinary civilized men. Two or three days later our ; 'culture had dropped aside like a cloak and -we were brutal and primeval. ' "I was in the trenches three weeks, for instance, without a single change' of clothes of any kind. But I never thought of it. For all of us the' things that were considered necessities in civilization simply dropped out of ex istence. A toothbrush was not imag inable. "We ate instinctively, when we had feod.nwith our hands. If we had stopped to think of it at all, it would have seemed ludicrous to bother using a knife "and fork. "A certain fierceness arises in you, 1 an aboslute Indifference to anything the world holds except your Job of fighting. You are eating a. crufet of bread , and a man Is shot dead in' the trench next to you. You look at him calmly for a moment and then go on eating 'your bread. Why not? ; There is nothing to do. In the end you get to talking of your own death In the trench with as much excitement as you could get. up over a luncheon engagement.- t Trench Life a Dreary One. "Why? Because there is nothing else left in your mind but the fact that hordes of men - you belong with are fighting with other hordes and your side must win. That Is your complete psychosis. It Is only some tremendous force like this warfare that can so " destroy the individual's conception, of himself while he still lives! -.'!.. i4 , "It becomes terribly . dreary waiting in the trenches, with no Incident but the occasional wounding or killlhg of a man near enough to see. Actual fighting is, under these conditions, welcomed by the soldiers as a? great relief.' "For the officers there Is perhaps a little more variety, since they- must keep thinking about and safeguarding their responsibility. It began to get very hard for us to hold back our men, for Instance. ' We had been In a trench in a swamp , for three days. ' The water gradually, drained in and finally reached our knees. We resort ed to bailing with our hats, but that did not help much. .Under these, -cir- 1 JiZZ '' I 1 II is t t ' t I 1 V.- fA d V ' : llll MM , 1 1 F 1 ' I Mil . V - ' X j ll My ind Mra KraiWr in iHo drriaaA X ' I j KopUcO. dt Laobon. V ) I II Irua battalion, vath jthaln cumstances it became difficult to con- -vlnce our men that it was wise to stay . Intrenched, rather than try a charge. "On, the modern field of battle the soldier of infantry Is a small -unit. . We could look out and see the clouds of smoke and hear the thunder of the guns, but there was little else except now and then the sight of an aero plane. ; Yon could hear the whirr of the motor, but they generally flew so high we dared not fire at them for fear that the hail of bullets would fall back among our own men. "Amid this absence of all signs of life it was hard to convince our boys that their time had not yet come. As I have said, we were then, outnum bered by the Russians about three to one and our aim was to hold our posi tions until the reinforcing troops could ' be brought up In the rear and form permanent lines.. , . "In the trenches we were generally without food, several times for three days at a stretch. I have more than Jfcce licked the dew from the grass to fnoisten my throat because I could get nothing to drink, i The roads were im passable and the- supply trains moved only with great difficulty at the ontset of the war. Now and then a cow , would be found, shot, butchered on tho , spot, and then we could roast portions in the trenches and eat where we were. In the night time they would i bring the field kitchens up, when they were available, and then we would have soup. "Somehow the physical discomfort that Is a tame word to apply does you no harm. Indeed you feel better physically. 1 am of a nervous tem- perament. 1 would never have given myself credit beforehand for being able to get through what I went through. But when I was in it, I found it did me no harm. On the con trary it improved me in some ways. For instance, my eyesight was far better on the battlefield than it ever was. before. I could see like a hawk, for , long distances, better than X can now. My nerves disappeared. The horrible, shocking sights that were seen hourly did not affect me as much as some letter I get new from a friend or well wisher expressing sympathy. "Coming back to comfort and safety has been more of a shock to the nerv . ous- system that -I suffered while I ' vivio Kroialor ,v3 .cam tHa. was fifhtinK- And I dread my first concertl appearance here, where I have friends more than .1 did the shells of the enemy.J I think you can under- . stand what'l mean on the mental side. "On the physical side does it mean that we moderns under civilization do not live rightly? De we eat too much, do we get too much Bleep, do we fait . of proper exercise? For my experi ence has shown me that the soldier on the battlefield, suffering crippling physical -discomfort and mental shock that must almost have a pathological effect, lis really a healthier man than even the one who uses civilization's best hygienic experience under the most favorable conditions. "That is part of what goes with the primeval condition that war reduces us to, I suppose. I have learned my lesson in the trenches. When we have war, te centuries roll away and we are back at beginnings at a bound.: -VBut there is another side to the pie-" ture. War may bring unspeakable horrors, but it does not fail -to unfold the finest flowerings of humanity. "From the - moment war was de-' clared j all f ranks disappeared In my country. No one knew who the other was. He was satisfied that they were brothers in their devotion to their country -That is why it has made me angry sometimes when people have said, i 'How' could they take an artist and let, him fightr They should -rather not think it worthy of any com ment. 1 am an Austrian. As soon as war began the last thing I thought of was a j violin or that I had ever played one. j r' "Next to mo in the trenches were a prinfce, a sculptor, a mathematician"? and af professor, and nobody asked them who? they were, ' or cared. We forgot; everything except the work we had to do. Why should I claim im munity as an artist? "I have seen people whose houses stood !in the way of our artillery fire and therefore had to be razed, put tho torch j to the houses cheerfully them selves. I, too, lost everything I had Invested in the regions touched by the fighting, t "Before t tho war we thought the human race had deteriorated. We often j eaid so. We thought it had gone tango mad and destroyed Itself in f rtvolities. But - the war proved among all the nations engaged that the race is just as sturdy as it ever was. There is that side to it. Hatred for Foes Is Impersonal "I have seen acts of the most tender sympathy and kindness, and real hero- ism, with my own eyes, go hand-ln-hand with grim, stalking war. "For j Instance, it was good to see tha the hatred of one foe for another was only an impersonal thing. In the mass . we ! hated our enemy, but as soon as we were confronted with him in person, all was kindness to the in dividual. I have seen emaciated Aus trian (soldiers and I well knew how long It Toad been since, they had had enough: to eat hand a crust of bread to a Russian prisoner. ; . "Axd we know from Austrian who wer taken, prisoners- that thft.Rnswianw . I ! ' jrcxand. vwitboat lnx yaHiajfijdirectV bahlnd iiim. had exactly the same feelings. Often our wounded would be oaptured and removed to a Russian - field hospital. Then - a sudden temporary change in the battle lineup would force the Rus sians to abandon these prisoners and they would come back to our hands. So we well knew how the Russians acted and felt toward us. "Then there were Innumerable lit tle incidents of the honoring of brav ery In a foe. We took one trench, for instance, after the enemy had put up a gallant fight. The first act was a salute to the foe In acknowledg ment of his bravery. And there were ; the little things like returning the ! arms of an officer who ' had fought well but been forced to surrender by the fortunes of war. "There were all those fine flowers of courtesy to show that, perhaps, after all, it was not utterly brutal and primeval, but that finer feelings had survived and been cultivated. ' "I remember .once that a Russian officer tottered out of one of their trenches waving a rag on the end of his sword. The firing ceased. He came to our lines. Under his arm was a bottle of wine. He said he had had nothing to eat for five days and could stand It no longer, and proposed that We exchange some bread for his wine. We scraped together some mildewed pieces of bread and gave them to him. He stumbled back to his lines. He had spoken to us and we to him, and I remember we gave him a handful of cigarettes for his comrades. When he got back to his trenches the firing was resumed, but there had been an unof ficial truce for 20 minutes. "The next morning, : I am . sorry to say, I stumbled across, his dead body. "Another Incident of pure human kindness being brought out "on the . battlefield concerned a soldier who was in charge of one of the- horses that carried our ammunition. ' The soldier had become deeply attached - to the ' animal he was in charge of. One day a fragment of a i shell hit the horse and made a deep gash along its side. The man also was wounded. - - "He stopped a civilian surgeon and . asked him to bandage the horse's wounds. The surgeon gasped in amaze ment at being asked such a thing "when - there were so many wounded men, and refused. Thereupon the soldier drew his bayonet and forced the surgeon to bandage the animal. They were in a hellish fire all the time and the man was wounded, but he asked no atten tion for himself, i "The acts of heroslm were Innum erable, of course. I remember a case -where three soldiers were sent with ,a very Important message to the di vision commander,, in the hope that one of them would get through. They had to cross an open space where they , ' were exposed to a heavy fire, and progress was Impeded by barbed wire entanglements charged with electric ity. They had to cut their way through this with Insulated 'wire cut ters. Two of them were shot dead. The third found himself nearly through when his arm, which had been .shot badly,! caught in the en tan- -glement and he could not get it. out. Thereupon the soldier drew his bay-' oneC and finished the work the ene ' mys fire had begun, amputating his arm himself.: He got clear and de livered his message. Saved by. His Orderly. . "I have seen artillery caught in an exposed place and the horses killed. The men who tried to work the guns were shot' down; then the nen-coni-missloned bfficers went, and finally, there were none left but the officers . to fire the guns. But they kept at it. The instances of devotion of soldiers to officers under fire were numerous. , "Without doubt, I owe my life to my orderly. The trenches my regi ment was holding, were rushed by the ' Cossacks on the night of September 6. The cavalry only dares attack in trenched infantry at night, when, they have some protection from rifle fire. It was about 11:3d when they attacked us. ' ,' "I can remember being bit by one horse and knocked down. While I lay I - saw a second Cossack reach down to finish me, He got me in the hip, but as he struck me I fired my re volver. I remember seeing him fall and the riderless horse gallop on. Then I became unconscious. ' "My orderly retired with the rest of the company. After the fighting bad moved on he came back and started to look for me, using a pocket flash lamp to examine the faces of the dead and wounded. He says that several times he was nearly caught by Cos- - sack patrols, but escaped by dropping to the ground, where be was taken for wounded or dead. He found me about 3 a, m., so -1 must have been lying there about four hours. . "He says I was lying on the dead Cossack . who : had wounded me, and that I must have grappled with him and. then used him Xor -pillow. Ho gave me some brandy and revived me end then assisted me back to our lines and to a field hospital. I was wounded near Komarano, a village a little way to the southwest of L, cm berg. After 4 being in the field hos pital I was taken to Vienna. "During the three and a half weeks my wife who had been acting as a Red Cross nurse, had not heard a word from me. . The first word she had was that I was dead. That was probably the " same report which reached this country. She says that . I f jF yt- i V -a " ' 1 - y 7 Oay.toafox-o va a-m when she heard I was deaoV she re ceived that as good news, for at least she had found ma Vienna's War -Time Mood. "The report of my death originated through a mistake of the . surgeon. Next to me in the hospital was' lying a man who was dying. After the sur geon had looked at him an officer in the hospital said, Did you know that was Kreisler, the violinist?' The surgeon thought he referred, to - my neighbor, and when he unfortunately died, reported my death. "I was In the hospital three weeks after reaching Vienna.; Then I took the cure at the sulphur springs near Carlsbad. After this a commission of surgeons examined me and pronounced me unfit for further military duty. My trampled right shoulder has healed and does not bother me much now. I suppose I will always retain at least a stiffness in my leg, however. "I shall always remember my days In Vienna after 1 was invalided. I think it was impossible to have lived in Vienna in war time without loving It. There was an air of seriousness. 4 MA B00FDI STRISB I wish that I could.be a fairy bright, (The kind that dances in the wood at night -. And has a wand, and gauzy silver wings.) Oh, my, but I would do the mostest things! ' " For my swift steeds ; I'd catch two dragon flies But I am 'fraid I'd be scared of . their eyes! -' I think I'd get two butterflies, instead. And then, when other children were in . . bed, - -- - - I'd take my wand, and float up through - the air ' " f - - -..- .. ' 'And do things that they wouldn't dast 1 to dare: ; First thing I'd go high, high up to the - moon, - ,-: , And don't you think I'd find out very . soon , . I: It la It U man, as people cay? BuVaxxyhow. I wouldn't want Xft-sUy; The Horrors of the. Battlefields Are Calling Forth - 'f Man's Nobility as cXM Well as His Bru tality. ! - m :.:t - Of solemnity, of dignity, and yet thor- ( A A ugh resolution that was striking. Per- Vrf fl haps, after all, if war can bring about 4 that feeling of unity that was so ap- ' J parent through all the classes of VI- j . enna, it may have a great value as a - til purifier of the dross of human entl- ; ment. ' j ; f . . "It is my fond hop that after the : i j war has ended we artists will be in ' ) , a position to carry first the message J of peace through all the countries-1 , r' Surely art and religion will be the first forces that will set about the great re construction of world sympathy. ," i t "It, for lnstaa, the .dignified fig- , ure of Ysaye were seen on tha con, J) cert stage of any country .which had , fA been hostile -to his in the war, would "iy there be any one equal to expressing . animosity-? I don't know what I my- f self; will be able to do, because Ihave fought, and they may not be able to focgive me at first, the great walls of Can we tear dtwa hatred that fcav been erected between the nations? It will be a gigantic task. - - "I fear art will suffer. When peace ccmes, although art will try to speak : its message, will not all the energies of the nations be devoted to reestab lishing the material things that are of first urgence? I fear all other things will have to wait for these. Then ther are so many artists who have fallen,, They may not be world famous, but, after all, the art of a country Is th sum of what all the artists are, and. the individual does not loom large," i Mr. Kreisler now seemed to have ex hausted his ability to answer ques- E3 1 - s -2 1 -it.. fi Jl. vrocLrvdoO. "Srv-tppod" ty tlona His manager had come for a visit, and with Mra Kreisler was fin-f Bering over the huge mass of JetterefJ ox welcome tnat lay on me taoie, rar i- too many to hope to , catch up with! for the present. In the, conversation. that ensued it eame out that the vlo-H Unlet had been advanced in rank onH grade on the nay before be was dis- charged and told by his regimentals commander that' he was; to be men--tioned for distinguished service. Kreis ler had not seen fit tT mention thacL At thj dnnrlrflT tit interviewer, who ! had caurht Mrs. Kreisler alone, en i deavored to find out how her husband . had distinguished himself. - J "He didn't do anything more thaaj i anyone else," she said: "Just what they were all doing, their duty. there, was one thing. -The men pf hlal company, ouvra us icii, nprMHq i .their gratitude for his 'special eonstd-l eratlon of them. It . seems he had ' habit of doing outpost duty for soma of them. There were several other! sick ones who ate 'his dinners at him own request, and on the march hM carried the equipment of another. He argued that they were under a .disV) advantage in having heavy knabsackf to carry, and he was stronger awn better able to bear fatigue anyway." ; : All of which adds something to thi ' vloi linist as a soldier. ft Down through the stars, back to thf earth I'd fly, 1 ! My silver wand, my butterflies, and - Now, Dick don't believe that f airier . - - are "for true," f And calls me "silly baby" 'cause X de I think I'd change him to a yowling cat. ' ! ' The mls'ble boy! What would ha thinfif of that? j My mamma's always doing things fo! ' me;- h I'd float, and float outto the magic s j Where babies grow, and mermaids! when they cry, t. . -ifH JTk acitltf h lift! thlnH a 1iiibi.K,i . rd only ask the stork for three d - four :i He'd think I's selfish if X asked qf .. mora - i .- . . " . fi X'd choose soft, pinky ones, with shltf r And wouldn't mamma have boorr 'prise? 1 1 ' f A Cora TpaTi TT,tnj1(' I n