Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1904-12-23
GREAT ARMIES UNDER GROUND.
How the Russians and Japanese Are Pass.
ing the Winter In ManehurIa.

From the London Times.
With November the cold weather be-
gins In Manchuria and is increasingly in
tense Around Mukden the Thermometer
does not usually fan below zero (Faren-
helD until the middle OF December, when
night after night II may sink g. 10 and
even 20 degrees below zero, and during
January to 30. In the frequent north
easterly or north westerly billiards. no
human beings can live under canvas
Some may be quartered i'm native houses !;
but where, even supposing that the own
ers should be ruthlessly turned out. will
accommodation be found for half a mil
lion men?
The answer is simple; the japanese are
already making use of underground dwell
iugs, such as the natives sometimes use,
and which were used by the Russians dur
ing the winter after the Boxers had de-
stroyed their railway buildings. The soil
OF Manchurla. excepting In certain places,
is dry at this season, especially in the dis
tricts between Mukden and Lao Yang,
where 1t is, largely. loess and sand. The
Japanese. who hold the low hills. with
gentle slopes, are In the better position.
The method is to dig a trench about 10
feet to ~ feet deep and varying in width,
but generally about nine feet wide A
narrow stairway is cut leading down to
the south end. At the base 1t is widened
door. turning on wooden pivots. The up
per half of the door is open work, which,
being covered with the Opaque native
window paper. admits light. The sun
shines at midday down the steps. and.
when the door Is opened, freshens and
warns the room. Immediately within, on
one side. Is cooking stove. campoven or
boiler. in simple and primitive style TO
which both Russians and Japanese are
accustomed. Along the length of the
trench is a platform some two and one
half feet high and six feet wide, made of
hammered earth and rough, unburned
bricks. Beneath this are several simple
fiues, up and down which the smoke and
heat from the cooking place finds its
way. Issuing at the end. remote from the
entrance. by n small chimney. cut in the
solid ground. On this platform, which
resembles the old style OF greenhouse fiue
and Is called by the Chinese n kang
many men can sleep in warmth and COM
fort on rough mat or dried grass. This
mode of heating Is not only economical,
but the nues consume and carry of the
earth damp or carbonic acid gas which al
ways generates I'm underground dwellings.
Across the top OF the trench rough pieces
of timber or poles are laid, and on these
kaoliang stalks straw. upon which is
heaped the earth eXcavated from the
trench. This covering keeps out the cold
and is practically shellproof No rain
falls. and but little snow, and the latter
can, II desired, be swept of the roofs or
mounds over the dwelling.
The Japanese have access to n large
number of the native surface" coal
mines, where "A coarse dust coal is readily
excavated and can be, when mixed with
little wet loess earth, burned in the
rough cooking places referred to. in which
grass. rubbish and almost anything can
also be consumed as fuel. Whilst the first
IL feet to 20 feet of the plain and low
hills now occupied by the armies are dry
in winter, good water can be found al
most anywhere at 25 feet to 80 feet be-
low the surface