Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1904-05-27
ECHOES FROM THE WAR
How a Japanese Patriot Assist
ed His Country.
PITITUL YALU BATTLE SCENES.

A Cosack Raised CIiuched Fist In
Agony to Heaven, While n Polish
Soldier Lay Moaning For His Loved
One-Russian Girls keenness to
FiEht-Japanese Fathers Sacrifice.
Franks Played on Cxar.
Rats and soldiers do not seem to
have much connection with each other
perhaps, says the Londor Chronicle.
But rats suggest plague, and plague
and war are sometimes bracketed to-
gether as twin scourges. Among the
measures the japanese adopted for ex-
terminating the plague was the ex-
termination of rats, reward of 5
sen about l penny being given for
every rat brought to the police sta
ton. The rodents began to arrive in
such large quantities that the police
began TO ask what was to be done
with them. To their rescue came
modern japanese Pied Piper, who said:
Il will relieve you of your rats.
will send to the stations and remove
ull the bodies free and save you all
trouble out of gratitude for and ad-
miration of the way in which the gov
ernment has grappled with this terri
BILE scourge"
The offer was received with graft
tude, and the rats We're duly collected.
When the Russo-Japanese war broke
out the soldiers who were dispatched
to the bitterly cold northern regions
wanted furs, which are expensive
things, and they could not afford them.
But presently some of the shops dis
played walstcOats lined with nice
soft gray fur at most tempting price,
and the soldiers bought these up In
large numbers and went off to the
front happy and warm. The con-
tractor smiled as he conned his bank
passbook, remarking, Rats have
nice strong skin which works up into
a good fur, and they We're all carefully
disinfected, and | am happy to be able
once more to render little assistance
to my beloved country"
+. A. Mckenzie, special correspondent
of the New York World with the Japa-
nese army, recently sent to his paper
the following description Of scenes on
the Yalu river battlefield:
t.. Hat h.. hns
May l | crossed over the Yalu into
Manchuria and gaZed OH the scene of
the conflict. The battlefield presented
sickening spectacle, the field hospital
surgeons deftly patching up the wound
ed men, who bore their suiferings with
the most heroic stoicism. There Po-
lish soldier lay moaning "Meine liebe"
(''My sweetheart'), not once, but
hundred times, until near the end,
when the breath went out of him in
muttered prayer. Then a Russian Off
Ger strove, with set teeth, to suppress
groans as the surgeons raised his shat
tered leg, while fierce mustached
Cossack, lying wounded on the ground,
raised his clinched fist in agony to
heaven.
The Japanese are showing the great
est kindness to the wounded prisoners.
This is especially noticeable in the field
base hospital, where surgeons even
leave the Japanese "Tommies" to at
tend to the Russians.
20 for
ice with the Russian army in the far
east, Antonnina Petrova, nineteen
year-old Russian girl of extraordinary
beauty, whose parents are both dead,
persuaded the officers of a regiment
leaving SaratOff for the front to take
her with them, says special cable dis
patch from Moscow to the New York
American.
After crossing Lake Baikal on foot
in temperature many degrees below
zero she was informed by the military
authorities at Harbin that she could
not be allowed to take part in the op-
erations. The young girls position
was now desperate as she had no mon
ey for her return to Saratotf Finally,
however, she so worked on the officers
feelings that they interceded for her
with the authorities, and she was per-
mitted to join field hospital. She still
hopes to reach the fighting line in spite
of all obstacles.
When one of the twelve year men In
Japan was called to the colors he sue
ceeded in placing all of his children in
the care of relatives except one little
girl, says the London Chronicle. None
could take her. &c. doing what seemed
to him mercy and duty, he cut her
throat. 1t is said that the officers
praised him for the deed. According
to their view, he loved the child so
much that he would not see her suffer.
but he loved his country more OF
course he expects to be killed. His
4 farewell to his family was for eterni-
ty. They viii boast far more OF ia
ther who died in battle than of ia
ther who fought and still lived.
The imperial encourage at st. Peters
burg has lately been scandalized by
the number of practical jokes which
have been played on the czar, says the
New York Journal. For example, one
night his majesty's bed was filed with
cheap ikons and buttons cut from his
own uniforms. The prank was follow
ed by others equally annoying.
Finally bis majesty's writing desk
was found covered with toy Japanese
soldiers. This was so pronounced a
case of leze majesty that most care