New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-07-05

commander before him. DR.. StrousDurgs rail-
way, crooked and ill-equipped though IL De-
makes Giurgevo distributing point Tor sup
plies and greatly diminishes the distance De
tween the army in the field and the practical
base of operations.
With these points in their favor, the Rus-
slams have been as tardy rs In the past. lhcre
has been none of the tremendous marching OF
the Germans. During the two months WHO"
followed the declaration OF war; the hussiah
columns filed into Roumania and quietly en-
camped in the mud. week ago the long
expected passage was made, forty thousand
men crossing the Danube in a single day. IL
was n brilliant movement. Luck had been on
the side of the Turks the floods had clapped
their hands and the Danube had been lmpas-
sable: but now the Russians were across at
last and would make quick work OF the
campaign; now they would prove thaI
their cavalry had the speed and recklessnps IS OF
bawksl II was a vain hope. There has been
diminishing on the road to Tirnova, but the
main body of the army is crossing the river very
slowly and establishing itself on the southern
hank in the same methodical manner in which
il occupied Roumana. After waiting for two
months, the Russians seem TO nave peeh
scarcely ready to cross, and their commlssafiat
is wretchedly managed. Their generals EVIL
IDENTIFY do not know how to handle great
masses of troops and make war on grand
scale.
These conclusions may be premature. Gen.
Diebitsch's campaign in 1928 has always been
regarded in Russian military circles as mas
terpiece; but it was NapoleOnic rather thah
Russian. Ii was a triumph of audacity. Leav-
ing before Shumla and other fOrtresses force
barely large enough to mask them, he pressed
on over the rampant of the Balkan with an
army of invalids and dictated peace at Adrian
ople. II is possible that the Grand Duke in
tends To repeat this bold maneuver and to
strike the Balkan at Gabrova Pass But ne
cannot afford to make haste slowly, for every
northern army that has invaded turkey
in midsummer has suffered from the
ravaees of disease. During the campaign
of 1S2S-'29, with an army OF one hundred thou-
sand men in the field, there were one hundred
and thirty-live thousand serious cases OF SICK
ness treated in the hospitals, every man Oh
the average being twice on the sick-list North
of the Balkan the troops suffered from
typhus and dysentery; III the PLAIN OF
Adrianople intermittent fever made terri
bic ravages, one out of every four men
who scaled the mountains dying OF the
plague in the valley below. Indeed, it is stated
that only fifteen thousand of the seventy
five thousand men who took part in the cam
paign of the second year lived to recross the
Pruth Diebitsch waited too long before
he took the tremendous risk of forcing his
way across the mountains. Their own proyerb
has betrayed them; they have fallen into the
happy -go-lucky habit of sitting on the shore
and waiting for the wind.
We have reserved for ourselves no space Ill
which to speak of the military operations in
Armenia. The Russians opened the war Ill
this quarter with great vigor and ability, and
the chances seemed to he all in their favor.
Suddenly they are reported to have dropped
their cards and abandoned the game The
rumors seem incredible. We must wait for
more authentic news before we can hope to ex-
plain the collapse of the Russian fortunes at
Toprak- Kalen, Kags and Batum. Melikoh Is
more likely to be waiting for black bread than
for the wind, for his armies have been quar-
tered III a most desolate section.