Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-08-23

ground they know is minded in order
to allow the survivors CT the ineyita-
BILE explosion to take position held
by the Russians. But the Russian
brain cannot see that his is wiser war
fare than the singing fighting which is
a part of the religious war plans Of
the Muscovites. Will L. Comfort, war
correspondent for the Chicago News,
writes to his paper as follows:
"Yet it is true that these elemen-
tary minds are vastly capacious for
sentiment. 1t it were not so they
could not sing. In the early
morning, battalion after battalion used
to wind through the foul, narrow
streets in heavy marching order, rails
ing their voices in a song that plunged
the listener upon the rack of emo
tons. 1t was worth enduring the ira
vail Of Manchuria to hear. The end
less sets of tours Of thick-set infantry
men, with their dirt-stained faces, their
fiat, faded caps, soggy gray blanket
rolls, long gray unclean overcoats,
muddy black boots, ammunition belts
sagging with weight. their long rifles
with bayonets eternally fixed-fileS by
with numbering step-singing!
Another story is told of the Russian
priest who led the forces of the car
in bloody battle early in the war.
The priest was among the first to fall
and the Russians were beaten.
y Singing is all right in it's place, so
is prayer and religious encourage
ment, but the place for them is sell
dom In battle. To be sure. music
played large part in the civil war
and the bands are admittedly one of
the chief adjuncts of the American ar
my, but their tunes are rarely reli.
gious, Rather is their air inspiring.
"a Hot Time" Is popular, America"
spurs many blue coat on, but he has
little time for singing. Yelling is all
right but tunes don't go we'll with
bloodshed.
The religious devotion of the Rus
SLAMS, if consistent, is to be admired
but that 1t is not so is evidenced by
all the reports from the front. The
Russians, so correspondents say, are
brutal toward their enemies and the
Chinese. In the same dispatch from
which the above quotation is culled
Mr.. Comfort writes:
THE days were filled with grisly
Oieo VI 4euooldu uu1uOI, l saw nall
drunken officer offer a Chinaman five
Mexican dollars for little stallion
that was worth 5000 and when the
owner refused the Russian beat the
yellow hand loose with the bride rein,
smashing the knuckles with the heavy
knotted butt-then lurch into the sad
die and lash his prize into a gallon.
This action from an officer.
The men were more primitive in
their brutality A quartet of cavalry
men swung by the door of the Chinese
hotel where had taken quarters. A
skinny, NANCY cur, whose right to live
came from Buddha of the charities,
was lying in patch of sunlight at the
edge of the road. The trooper nearest
swerved his pony over to the curb,
smung his whip aloft and dashed the
tough leather down upon the sleeping
dog. The four rode off with loud
laughter and the cur limped away
yelping."
And yet these same soldiers, the
next day, were marching down the
streets, chanting hymns. Doubtless
they had their charm too, given them
on leaving Russia by high priest.but
doubtless, too, they walked into hail
Of Japanese shot and shell which stop.
ped their song at the time Its inspira.
ton was needed and sent them back
in disorderly retreat before the tri.
umphant, "fanatical' Japanese.