Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-05-07

l the platforms, the bugles sound and ! they all uncover as the priest utteIs the. evening prayer. Then the troops l in each car, led by a tenor voice, break out into folk songs The Chinese will lagers with whom e--c soldiers quick ly make friends, gather about, listen | i&g to the songs, which are mostly plaintive airs. The men, many of whom have been forty days on trains on their way from the interior of Rus sia, are always cheerful and join heartily in the songs.
 N The same good humor is shown by the troops after tiring marches through | blinding dust storms and in the heat | which is daily becoming more intense. l The Chinese commander Of the dis | trict, accompanied by an escort at l tired in barbaric uniforms which con | trasted strongly with their modern l arms, waited at the station at Djand- gun for an interview with General INu- ropatkin, who later reviewed the gar riaon here. A large concourse of Chi nese assembled to witness the review Tokio, May z s(3 D. m.)-Vice Admiral l Togo reports that the entrance to Port Arthur is blocked completely to all | vessels except small boats. He adds ] that the Japanese have not lost sim l gle war vessel, although the attack re- l suited in considerable loss of life.
 St Petersburg, May z (2:20 D. m.- l The calmness with which the Russians accept the isolation of what always has been regarded as the Russian l Gibraltar in the far east, is remarka- bic. In military circles it had been considered inevitable from the first. No attempt is made to belittle the en- ergy shown by the enemy, but from the strategic point of view the invest ment of the fortress is regarded as re- 1 lieving the military situation on the mainland, which had been much em- barrassed by the necessity for main taining the seagirt stronghold at the extremity. of the Iiao Tung peninsula. Besides, the utmost confidence is ex- pressed in the ability of the fortress to withstand a siege. The whole of the lower end of the peninsula from Kien OnoIl (thirty miles above Port Arthur), lsOuth, is an entrenched camp command | ed by chain of most formidable forti- Acations, which surmount the crest of l every hill. Millions of roubles and 1 years of work have been devoted to rendering the place impregnable by land or sea. The railroad circling with in the camp will permit of easy trans I portation of the defending troops According to the Russian view. the | Japanese have q herculean task before ! them in the event of their attempting the reduction of the fortress Success | sive lines of defenses must be carried, and the Japanese operations cannot begin at the advanced position, Kien l Chou. until their siege guns are landed.
 General Stoessel, who will have SUI l preme command of the defense of Port | Arthur. is considered to be able and re l sourceful and to have an indomitable l will His orders of the day have l breathed a spirit of unyielding defi- 1 ance. One of them declared that the ! last man must die in the defense of l Port Arthur. The latest newspaper 1 dispatches from the beleaguered fort l ress contained an account of stirring l appeal made by General Stoessel to his | troops yesterday on the occasion of the review in honor of the empress's s name day, in which he announced that he would never surrender
 In addition to the 10000 sailors on board the ships at Port Arthur and I the regular fortress artillery, probably ! numbering 2,O0O men, the defending force consists of a division of rifiemen and three batteries of field artillery, a total of about 22,000 men.
 Tn anticipation of the severance of | communication all the valuable public documents had been removed to Muk- den and the work of supplying the fortress with provisions and ammuni- tion had been progressing for weeks. The authorities apparently are satis- fled that practically no non-eombant- ants remain there. The inhabitants of Port Dalny were sent away some time ago.
 The newspapers accept the news stoically, abjuring the people. not to be discouraged, as the cutting off of Port Arthur was foregone conclusion from
 the first
 The Novoe Vremya says:
 '',The fortress and it's defenders must 1 now shift for themselves until our l army in sufficient strength can come
 down from the north and rescue them. Tn the meantime the people must accus-
 tom themselves to be without direct
 news from Port Arthur"
 Antung, Manchuria, Monday, May 2
 via Seoul, Korea, May "A Japanese
 force to-day charged one thousand
 men of the Russian rear guard near
 Hamatan. After sustaining heavy
 losses the Japanese spiked the Russian guns and captured four hundred pris-
 oners.
 St Petersburg, May z, 5:31 p. m.--
 The telegraph office refuses to accept
 messages for Port Arthur.
 St Petersburg, May ', 5;30 D. m.--
 According to persistent rumor Gen i eral Kuropatkin decided not to give
 battle at Feng Wang Chang and the
 Russians have fallen back. The Jap
 anese have occupied Feng Wans
 Chang.
 Meningitis at Navy Yard.
 WASHINGTON, May 7.-Meningitis
 has again broken out at the navy yard
 at League island. Three cases have
 been taken to the hospital, and one of
 these proved fatal. A fourth case has
 been discovered at the yard