The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-10-17


 Gay night was passed in comparative quiet but that Saturday saw an i'm
 nenss eancentration of of Japanese on me Great Mandarin road, where the tsAssian batteries were vigorously play lng Tn an effort to hold them in check.
 Ihs result ot Saturdays fight has not been ef;lcial given, but there is every evidence that it vas of the most severe character.
 # Was during the Japanese furious night attack Of Wednesday. according to unofficial accounts. that the Rus sians lost their guns. Thursday witt messed another furious cannonade, in which the whole of the Russian center was forced back. In the afternoon of the same day the Russian right began to give way. Towards evening came a lev hours Hull, but at midnight the eannonading was renewed with in creased fury. eye witnesses declaring that 1t exceeded in intensity that of Liao Yang during the furious fighting Of the Both and 31st Of August.
 There was much desperate fighting on Friday, which was carried on through a tremendous storm of rain, hail and thunder. General Kuropatkin personally took command of the Pet rolf regiment. It was in the midst of l this awful war of men and clements, the Petrof regiment leading. that the Russians for the last time charged dog gediy into Shakhe and took the town in the fact of the hottest Japanese bonn
 The latest reports from the battle are jjof sunday afternoon and evening, when the Russians were carrying on iheavy rear-guard fight, evidently retir- ling on Mukden. Generals Oku and Nodzu were concentrating for another blow on the Russian right, where the lighting is described as having been furious. General Nodzu is reported to have been wounded seriously, but this cannot be confirmed.
 Mukden itself remains quiet, though lthe sounds of battle are plainly heard to the southwark The railway station is cengested with trains of wounded proceeding to Harbin. The hospital Facilities are completely oyertaxed. Six thousand wounded arrived at Mukden ion Saturday alone. The heroic sur lgeons and nurses, many of whom have Ebeen without sleep for thfrty-six hours, lare ready to drop with fatigue. Although the official account of the battle does not present the disastrous picture that many in St. Petersburg had resigned themselves to see, the general feeling here is of the deepest gloom If the battle has not been Rus lsia's Sedan in fact, the moral and po- 1litieal effect could hardly be worse i The result will render the war and it's Iconduct more unpopular than ever at home, while the greatest fears are ex- pressed that the Chinese population, if mot the government, will be encouraged ito abandon a long doubtful neutrality iand openly side with the victorious Japanese. From the military point of Eyiew the most bitter disappointment is lthe knowledge that the reverse seals 1.-the fate of the heroic defenders of Port
 Arthur, who are now without hope of tsuccor fronlthe outside world.
 A remarkable feature throughout is 1.-the popular sympathy with General j jKuropatkin. Vieeroy Alexieff is again enlarged with responsibility for Kuro- tpatkin's attempt to take the aggressive. Pity rather than criticism is awarded the ill-starred general, but it. is felt
 among army officers that the military
 prestige of the whole of Russia has so suffered at his hands that it is impossi- ttble that. he canseYer be given the chance Ito retrieve the disaster.