Part 6

"The Germans also conceal the losses which they sustained in the November fighting, although witnesses state never has a field of battle presented such a sight as on the roads of the German retreat toward Strykow--at some points where we attacked the German flanks the German dead were piled not less than a meter (over a yard) high."

CAN'T CARE FOR WOUNDED.

A letter received from a member of one of the foreign Red Cross missions in Servia paints a gloomy picture of conditions in Nish.

The town was crowded with wounded, fresh batches were still pouring in, and here tobacco factories were being utilized for their reception. There was serious shortage of dressings and other appliances. At one hospital visited by the writer, the attendants were merely putting on bandages, the supply of proper dressings being exhausted.

The number of surgeons and other workers, despite the arrival of foreign missions, was too small to deal with the enormous number of wounded. As a consequence, the work was taxing their powers to the utmost.

The Servians were meeting their difficulties with the greatest courage and cheerfulness, but the situation was extremely grave, and further assistance in the shape of personal service, money, and stores was urgently required.

"FORWARD, MY CHILDREN!"

According to a letter received recently by the parents of Lori G. Periard, a French infantryman, when he wrote the letter on November 5, he was resting at Montrol, a village back of Tresne en Oise for two days after a twenty-four-hour shift at "advance work," the driving back of the Germans.

"It is four o'clock in the afternoon," he writes. "We are at rest for two days in Montrol, a small village a little back from Tresne, where has been fought the frightful battle of October 8, of which mayhap you have heard. I was in that battle.

"There I saw my captain killed at my side as he shouted to us, 'Forward, my children! Courage!' The poor one! He was indeed one brave! I saw my best friends killed beside me. Myself, I got but a spent bullet in my pocket.

"Now we are advancing with caution. We take the advanced post every third day. That is to say this: We advance on Tresne, where the Germans are, with short dashes.

"The Prussians are only 400 yards away from us. We sprint and fall flat, and then we work all night to make some trenches to shelter us. The charges are always made at dark. In the morning Ave relieve ourselves by crawling back, while other soldiers who have had sheltered positions crawl to relieve us. I say crawl, because if the Prussians should catch sight of us they would honor us with a fusillade en regle....

"During the day we hide behind mounds of earth which we throw up, and we fight foot for foot any attempt they make to advance. They do not like our cold steel, and many times we must give it to them."

ANOTHER RECORD SMASHED.

The London _Standard's_ Berlin correspondent says the Berlin _Tageblatt_ relates that in the Belgian village of Beveren 150 Bavarian soldiers who had taken part in the siege of Antwerp drank 1,485 liters of beer within two hours.

Each Bavarian soldier thus drank in round figures nearly twenty pints within two hours.

The _Tageblatt_ has no other comment than that it was satisfactory to find that Belgian beer was fit for Bavarian consumption.

YOUNG GERMANY.

Heinz Skrohn, who attends the public school at Prussian Battau, near Neukuhren, sent the following letter of congratulation, which the Berlin _Tageblatt_ publishes, to General von Hindenburg on the occasion of his birthday anniversary:

"DEAR GEN. VON HINDENBURG: I read in the paper that October 2 is the anniversary of your birthday. The public school of Battau, Fischhausen county, sends its heartiest congratulations and hopes that you will continue to give the Russians a good thrashing. We very often play soldier, but nobody wants to be the Russ, saying that as such they get beaten up too much. I am also sending you a picture in this letter showing us lined up as soldiers. I am the leader, and have the Iron Cross on my chest. On another picture the girls are seen knitting socks for the soldiers. I would also like to have your picture, but a big one, please. We want to hang it up in our classroom alongside of the Kaiser's picture. When a few days ago the Russians were coming nearer and nearer to Koenigsberg many people here became alarmed and moved away. We, however, stayed at home and went to school every day. Our teacher here tells us every day what happens in the war. We had a big celebration here after the battle of Tannenberg. We got all the flags together and marched through the village. We boys would like to go to war, too, but are too small yet. I am only twelve years old. Please write me that you got the letter. If you have no time yourself, have somebody else write. The boys here are very anxious to know whether I will get a reply.

"Now, good luck once more to you and health from all the boys of the public school of Prussian Battau, especially from the captain.

"HEINZ SKROHN."

The following reply was received by Heinz in due time:

"DEAR HEINZ: His Excellency Major General von Hindenburg wishes me to thank you very much for your letter and the pictures. His Excellency will have a picture sent to you, and hopes that you will always be industrious boys, despite the war.

CAEMMERER, "Captain and Adjutant.",

THE INVISIBLE FOE.

A visit to the French trenches in Flanders, under the auspices of the French General Staff, is here described:

Standing in the shelter of a wonderfully ingenious and deep-dug trench on what undoubtedly is the bloodiest battlefield in European history, the most notable impression is one of utter surprise at the absence of movement and the lack of noise.

Within one's range of vision, with a strong field glass, there are probably concealed not fewer than 100,000 men, yet except for the few French soldiers with rifles in their hands standing or kneeling in the immediate vicinity and keenly peering over the flat land toward the positions held by the Germans, no human presence was noticeable.

A staff officer said that behind a slight slope 300 yards away many German guns were hidden, but only an occasional burst of flame and a sharp whirring sound coming from an indefinite point told of this artillery.

A little forest to the left bristles with machine guns backed by infantry in rifle pits and covered trenches. The approach to these positions has been made almost impossible by barbed-wire entanglements strewn with brush and branches of trees and having the appearance of a copse of heather.

British, French, and Belgian troops are greeted with cheers by the people as they march from spells of duty in the trenches to the villages in the rear. These men are jaded and worn. They stay in the trenches for days at a time and are constantly under artillery fire as well as being subjected to infantry attacks.

As one group goes back to rest, another moves forward to take its place, and the men going into action cheer those who are retiring.

TRAITOR MAYOR SHOT.

A British officer writes home from the front remarking on the curious avoidance by the Germans, at first, of shelling the town hall at Ypres.

"Some suspicions were aroused by it," he writes, "and the place was searched. In the vaults underneath it, which are of very great extent, was found an enormous quantity of German stores and ammunition sufficient to last them a month and serve as a depot for their attack on Calais.

"It had been put there with the connivance of the Mayor at the time the Germans were in occupation. This explains their desperate efforts to capture the town again. The traitor Mayor was shot. Immediately afterward the Germans shelled the place and smashed up the building and set it on fire."

HE WON'T GET HURT.

A British prisoner of war named Lonsdale, confined in the Doeberitz Camp, has been condemned by a German court-martial to ten years' imprisonment for striking one of his custodians.

The incident is thus described by the _Lokal Anzeiger_: "When the occupants of one of the tents in the camp failed to turn out for work, a group of reservists in charge of the camp were ordered to drive them out. Lonsdale struck one of the German soldiers. A sergeant major drew his sword and hit Lonsdale several blows on the back.

"At the trial the president of the court-martial told witnesses to speak the truth and not to be influenced by hatred of the English."

REAL LUXURIES.

The way in which the Russian soldiers will risk their lives for comparatively small luxuries is evidenced by the following story:

During the fighting in East Prussia, a corporal asked permission to take a couple of his comrades and try to surprise one of the German scouting patrols. When he returned and reported that his effort had been successful, his officer asked him why he volunteered for such risky work. The corporal replied that the previous night a friend had relieved a German officer of a good supply of chocolate and a flask of brandy, and he wanted to "try his luck," too.

"And what did you get?" asked the officer.

The corporal grinned and showed two cakes of milk chocolate and five cigars.

THE GRATEFUL PRINCE.

A letter from Prince Joachim, the Kaiser's youngest son, who was recently wounded in action against the Russians in the East, to a non-commissioned officer who rendered first aid to him, was given out here by the German Information Service last night as follows:

"MY DEAR CORPORAL: You surely must have thought me ungrateful for not having thanked you ere this for your kind aid. I would have done so long ago had it not been for my removal to Berlin. To-day the Empress read me your letter, which was a source of great joy to me and her Majesty. At the time when you rushed on with your company I did not find an opportunity to thank you for your faithful aid. I shall always be grateful to you for it. That was true comradeship. I trust you are in good health when this letter reaches you. Did Private Ewe get a new package of bandages? I have reproached myself for having taken his. And now farewell and remember me to all the boys of the 83d, my Cassel friends, and tell them that I shall be back as soon as I am able to get on my feet again. Your thankful comrade,

JOACHIM, "Prince of Prussia."

"TOO AWFUL TO DESCRIBE!"

An eyewitness, a soldier who took part in that fearful siege, describes his impressions of the slaughter near Przemysl:

"The fury of the Russians' attack was shown by examination of the battlefield. The bodies of fallen Russians in the zone of our obstacles formed great piles many meters high. It was a terrible sight. I was one of a squad accompanying the examining officers. It was too sickening to repeat. Those masses of dead and dying wounded men. The dead were not so terrible--so sad to me!--as those wounded.

"It was the living--the writhing creatures, in that mass of humanity, causing the piles of flesh to quiver, as these helpless ones struggled feebly to escape."

BRITISH AND BELGIAN KINGS MET BY ROADSIDE.

A LONG HANDSHAKE THE FIRST GREETING; THEN THEY DROVE ACROSS THE BELGIAN FRONTIER.

The London _Daily Mail_ correspondent sends the following dispatch from Dunkirk, the date being omitted:

"There was a historic incident on the roadside in Flanders to-day when King George met King Albert. The King of the Belgians, as the host, was first at the rendezvous. He was dressed in his usual quiet uniform of dark blue.

"As he alighted from his motor and walked toward some old cottages here, he waited, and exchanged kindly words with some Belgian soldiers who came out of a neighboring inn to touch their hats to their monarch.

"Noon struck from an old clock tower near at hand, and a moment later a motor cyclist flying the Union Jack was buzzing along the road toward ----. Behind were three black limousine cars, all flying Union Jacks, and behind them was a second motor cyclist.

"The cars and cyclists stopped, and from the first motor came King George and the Prince of Wales with him. He wore a khaki uniform, with a scarlet band round his hat. He looked fit and well.

"The two kings moved forward with outstretched hands to greet each other there in the muddy road with none but a few officers, a few soldiers, and simple villagers looking on.

"Upon a canal barge on the water alongside the road a woman was hanging out her washing on the mainmast and boom. All she saw was two men shaking hands, but there was quiet earnestness about that greeting. The handshake was long and firm, and the accompanying smiles like those of men who meet on serious occasions.

"Their first talk was not long. After returning the salute of a soldier, who had come up close to look on, they entered King Albert's motor car and passed on over the frontier into the little remnant of Belgium that still remains out of the enemy's clutches.

"The two kings stayed a short time to review the troops, Belgian and others, drawn up in the village square, and then the monarchs drove on together to here. They dined and talked in friendly intimacy of the strange happenings that had befallen the kingdoms of both and of the great fights that have been fought."

* * * * *

Fifteen hundred British men and officers are in the base hospital at Boulogne suffering from frozen feet. Fully one thousand of this number must have one or both feet severed, owing to the deadening of the nerves, which makes futile all attempts at treatment. Chilblains and frostbites have been depleting the ranks worse than bullets and shrapnel, and once a man's foot is frozen he is through, as far as fighting is concerned, for the rest of the war.

* * * * *

Says one British officer now in the hospital: "From the time I arrived at the front, three weeks ago, until I arrived at the hospital last night, I have not been warm for one moment."

* * * * *

While the men are away at the war, the Women's Freedom League of London has formed a corps of policewomen for duty on the streets, at railway stations and in public parks. The women have organized under the name of "Women Police Volunteers."

* * * * *

The throne of Egypt is going begging. Great Britain and the native government are finding it impossible to induce any of the native princes to accept it. It is now proposed to make the country a separate kingdom, independent of Turkey.

* * * * *

One arms and ammunition company in this country is erecting a million-dollar building to supply the demand for its products created by the European war. This company has a contract that calls for the manufacture of fifteen hundred rifles per day.

* * * * *

Many of the Allied soldiers are in the hospitals "wounded without wounds." They have been so dazed by the shock of exploding shells that it was deemed best to invalid them for a while. In some cases the shells destroy a man's memory. One corporal was brought in who remembered his name and the events preceding the war, but has utterly forgotten anything subsequent to the mobilization. He even refused to believe a story of his own heroism.

* * * * *

The spy scare in London forced many innocent men out of the country. Adolph Boehm, who sold newspapers in Piccadilly for more than thirty years, was forced to flee unless he wished to stand trial for being a German spy.

ROUGH ON THE PRISONERS.

The Paris _Temps_ correspondent describes a meeting near Soissons with a French infantry soldier who had just escaped from the Germans. They had forced him, he said, with fifty others captured at the same time, to dig trenches after shooting those refusing. The soldier said:

"Under a French cannonade which killed many, we were compelled by blows to dig in the most exposed situation the trenches the Germans now occupy, which are very wide and deep and cemented against damp at frequent intervals. We received only one meal, at 11 P. M. We had no coverings and slept in the trenches. Finally, when my comrades were most all killed, I crept from one end of the trench and crawled 100 yards to a shell hole, where I spent the following day. Then I crawled 200 yards to the French trenches.

"The Germans received food and munitions regularly, but seemed dispirited, and suffered from rheumatism greatly. The majority are middle-aged.

"During the last fortnight the Germans have withdrawn many guns, which were replaced with trunks of trees as barrels to deceive aviators, and some were even mounted on wheels."

HANDICAPPED.

Passing a building in Glasgow where some of the Belgian refugees were housed, two young girls were overheard arguing about the language of the guests, thus:

"A wish we'd been gettin' French this year; we'd been able tae speak tae the wee Belgians."

"They widna understan' French, for A heard they speak Flemish."

"Well, A heard the Belgians speak better French than they dae in France, just the same's we speak better English than they dae in England."

PRINCE A FINE SOLDIER.

The London _Times_ military correspondent, giving an account of the life led by the Prince of Wales at the front, says:

"He won golden opinions. Personally of slight physique and almost fragile looking, the Prince was but little known to the army until he joined it, and now that he is becoming known it is a revelation. He is among the keenest and hardest soldiers in the army. He walks more than six miles before breakfast every morning, drives his own car and spends every moment of the working day in acquainting himself with the situation of the troops and the service of the army.

"Although nominally attached to Sir John French's staff, he is not chained there. He has been attached in turn to army corps, divisional and brigade headquarters and is undergoing an education which no books can ever give him. Only last week he occupied a house rocking and shaking day and night with the bombardment, and he has visited the trenches, including those of the Indian army. It will be difficult to keep him out of the firing line of his grenadiers.

"A more zealous and indefatigable young officer does not serve with the King's troops. He has a quiet, confident dignity which is most attractive and his character and intelligence arouse the enthusiasm of all who meet him. It was not exactly the expression of a courtier, but it was the expression of a truth, when an old soldier looked wistfully after him and muttered, half to himself: 'That's a d----d good boy!'"

"FOR YOUR LEETLE AMIE."

But for the honesty of a British "Tommy," says a Paris despatch, a famous French actress would have lost her satchel containing jewels valued at $25,000. She had dropped the satchel as she was getting into a taxi, and the soldier, who was passing along, picked it up and restored it to her.

So grateful was the actress that she took off a valuable ring from her finger and presented it to the finder, saying:

"This ees for your leetle English amie."

* * * * *

Bone grafting to save shattered limbs is being accomplished at Bordeaux by the Russian surgeon Woronoff, who experimented with Dr. Alexis Carrel at the Rockefeller Institute in this city. Doctor Woronoff is replacing as much as seven and one-half inches of missing bone by transplanting monkey's bone to the wounded limb. He also employs the bones of other men.

* * * * *

The latest charges against the British censor comes from Germany, where it is asserted that the censor deleted entirely the message sent by the Kaiser to the Queen of Spain at the death of her brother. The message, the Germans declare, never reached its destination.

* * * * *

In a raid sixty Cossacks captured three hundred German cavalrymen. The Cossacks were sent out to learn what was going on in Czenstochowa. They divided into sections and dashed into the sleeping town simultaneously. They killed a number of Germans before they had time to crawl out of their blankets. Then they drove three hundred Germans ahead of them to their lines. When the prisoners were examined forty of them were found to be women dressed in soldiers' uniforms.

* * * * *

Japan has transported two hundred big Krupp guns, together with the men and officers for handling the guns, over the Trans-Siberian Railway to the Russian front. For this service Japan is said to have been promised that half of the peninsula of Saghalien which at the present belongs to Russia. These guns were purchased by Japan from Germany last year.

* * * * *

The King of Saxony has joined the troops in Belgium. His presence greatly encourages the men. He is said to be taking the Kaiser's place while the latter is in East Prussia exhorting his warriors there.

* * * * *

When a wounded Belgian soldier was examined in the hospital a leather purse was found in his pocket and in it a bent and broken Belgian one-franc piece, part of which was missing. The purse itself was badly gashed by a bullet. The man's wound did not heal readily and the surgeon, probing deeper into the man's thigh, found the missing part of the coin imbedded near the bone. It was removed and the soldier speedily recovered.

EVEN THE BUTLER!

"I have the honor to inform you that I have enlisted in the 4th Queen's," wrote a butler resigning his position with a wealthy Kent family by whom he had been employed for fifteen years. "I hope my leaving will not inconvenience you, but I feel that my obvious duty is to do my little share toward the defence of my King and country, especially as my work as an indoor servant is such as can be done--and in times like these I think should be done--by women. No single man with any patriotism can remain if he is able-bodied and otherwise eligible to serve in the army."

"THEY ARE BRAVE MEN!"

"A Hindu belonging to a Lancer regiment to-day rebuked in my presence a man who spoke slightingly of the German people," cables a correspondent. "With amazing dignity he said:

"'Do not talk like that of the Germans. It is a great country which can make war on five Powers. They are brave men who can fight and die as the Germans do. The pity for them is that they are not so well trained as we.'"

THOUGHT KIPLING SPY.

How Rudyard Kipling narrowly escaped arrest on a charge of espionage is told in the following letter written by Cycle Sergeant Callis of the Fifth (Loyal North Lancashire) Territorials, now training at Sevenoaks:

"Our battalion turned out in full marching order and proceeded to our usual practice ground, Knole Park. The cycle section marched in the rear of the column and an ordinary looking man came to me and asked me a lot of particulars about the battalion. He told me he had seen a lot of soldiering in his time and said he must confess our men struck him as being about the smartest on the march he had ever seen outside the regulars.

"He asked me for so many particulars about them, and also about their billets, that I thought I should detain him as a sort of spy.

"I excused myself and rode off to the head of the column and informed one of our majors as to the nature of the conversation, etc., and later took the man to said major.

"The officer stopped me to-day and laughingly asked me if I knew whom I had tried to put under arrest. I answered in the negative and he told me it was no less than Rudyard Kipling."

KAISER'S CONSCIENCE CLEAR.

The Berlin _Lokalanzeiger_ publishes the following description of the Kaiser by Sven Hedin: