The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-08-19
WILL WEIGHT or MOMENTUM WIN TIE FldH12
|WHEN RUSSIA MEETS 7HE 5AR{
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hting Animal the Russkie Is. -
I just then and he was q good one. I
had no notion where 1 could get
| another, and. without q horse there
was no use in my thinking about going
with the relief column to Pekin. But
I wouldn't have gone into that corn
field after that horse for all the ponies
that ever were bred in China. No
stree, Bob.
However. there was q chance to get
him back and I took it. There was a
company Of Russkies lying behind the
embankment q few yards beyond me
and I crawled along up to them. Il
had a couple Of Mexican silver dollars
in my pocket. and as came up to the
first of the Russkies I pulled out my
doDes and showed them to him. Then
1 pointed to the pony hogging the
green corn as fast as he could. The
bullets were striking all around him
and knocking up little puffs Of dust
just as the first big rain drops in a
storm make the water in d pond squirt
up when chey strike. expected every
moment to see him get one and go
down. But when showed that money
the grin that spread over the fiat face
Of that Russian soldier would have
kept you cheerful for long time. He
understood what I wanted, and he
knew what he wanted, which was
those dollars. I don't suppose he had
ever had that much money at one time
in all his life.
He spoke to one Of his mates and
the two got up and started out in that
field where the bullets were clipping
the corn tops just as have seen hail
stones do out West. They went right
out to the pony, only stopping long
enough to gather couple Of handfuls
of corn with which to coax him in.
'He was little shy of them and
they had some trouble in getting him
under cover Of the embankment. But
they did it after a little, and then
managed to run in and catch him.
When they brought him up to me I
gave them the two dobes and from
the way they took it you would have
thought 1 had made each Of them in
dependently wealthy for life. But I
went back to the settlements and had
a bad quarter Of an. hour with myself
for bringing two men for fifty cents
apiece to risk their lives in that
fashion. Afterward, I saw that it
didn't make any difference to them.
They don't think much Of soldier in
the Russian army when he's alive, and
after he's dead he is only bother.
The fate Of a man at Pekin showed me
that. The Russians had q sharp fight
at the Tung-pien gate in the Chinese
wall and got through it just about the
time our Fourteenth Infantry got over
the wall below them. We went
through the Tung-pien gate later. As
I came up there I saw the body of
big Russian infantryman lying in the
roadway just outside the gate.
"Some Of the Russian troops were
then going through the gate and as
they came along this man was in their
way. But they did not trouble to re-
move the body. They simply stepped
over it and let it lie where 1t had fallen.
The, man had been shot early in the
mo. ing, for the sun was already be-
cir : to show its effect on his face.
They - u taken his rifle and equip
ment, but the body lay there until
after all the troops had marched
through the gate. You see they
thought more of his equipment than
they did of the man himself. That
shows how much Russian soldier
counts.
"However lawless, or brutal, or
cruel, or licentious lie may be, never
forget that the Russian soldier will
fight every time and just as long as he
is asked to. What will happen when
the Japanese get after them no man
| can tell The Russian is slow a,
| clumsy and the Jap is light and Won
derfully mobile. In the open the Japs
| ought to out-manoeuvre the Russians
with conspicuous ease. From III
trenched positions it looks to me as if
neither would ever drive the other.
"The Russian will stay where he is
put just because he has been put there.
| It was an order. When he is ordered
to go away he will CO., not till then. If
the order is given at the wrong time
| it will be all the same to- him.
"When those two get at each other
hope to go along."-New York Sun.