The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1904-09-09
SUMMARY or WAR NEWS

Saturdays dispatches indicated that
the Russian army WAS in fun retreat
from Lilac lang toward Mukden, Tight
ing desperately to keep lNuroki from
cutting them off. Sunday brought Il re-
port that Stakelberg's Russian corps of
., 1000 had failed to get across the
Taitse river as ordered. m was cut
off. likely to be captured. Today brings
report that StaSelberg finally got
across the river, and rejoined Kuropat-
kin in the Yentai neighborhood, twelve
miles north of Lilac Yang, just in time
to prevent the Japanese from complete
iy destroying Drloff's division, which,
however, sustained terrific losses.
1t is Il race for Mukden. l<~uropatkin's
army seemingly is so demorali2ed, so
near rout, that TO pull it together for
another general battle short of the
walls of Mukden is impossible. 1t is
plain enough now that l~kuropatkin did
the right thing in e~vacuatinG Lao
Yang when he did. To stay was to be
surrounded: to leave was to meet dis
aster iii crossing the river. and then to
fight Cor the a northward. The dis
aster Is reported to have included thou
sandi of lives II the loss of 200 guns.
Tn fighting is still going on with re-
suits that are left very uncertain by
tho dispatches thus far received.
The second a. third Japanese
armies. under Ollu and Nodzu, are re-
ported TO ave crossed the river and to
be Joining in the pursuit of kuropatkin.
while kuroki continues his desperate
effort to get TO the rear Of the Rus
slams and bring them to a halt where
they must again fight.
The most significant statements are
made in today's dispatches. one IS
that while Kuroki was crossing the
N-iNp1s fNEI4nf\. ,,iIas 10 tho won't Ia OF nnct
from Lilac Yang, a second Japanese
force crossed still higher up stream,
and marched northwesterly over a still
wider circle. aiming to cut the railroad
farther north even than the point at
which Kuroki was aiming. This force
is but just reported to " been dis
covered by kuropatkin, II it is u
serious matter to him. The other
startling bit of information is from st.
Petersburg, n says there has been
desultory fighting in the immediate
neighborhood of Mukden. With
ing army, or With the japanese force
which for a long time has been mys-
teriously limited at as having reached
some point northeast of Mukden.
The profound concern of st. Peters
burg lest kuropatkin be headed off and
forced to give battle again indicates
that there is little hope of his again
escaping if a general battle is brought
about. vt is apparent that the Japa-
nese plan is to outfiank and surround
the Russians at some point on the
road to Lao Yang. just as they tried
patlkin got away from Liza Yang, al
belt in a sadly shattered condition.
With Japanese forces turning up so
n~umerousiy now. even almost to the
gates of Mukden, it may be- that this
time he will be enveloped and the
\ CnIo1g Of tho n u ,,,yniu, will .D-,o -
Il point farther north. 1t is largely n
question of how far the endurance of
flesh blood can be stretched. His
tory accounts nothing comparable to
these thirteen days of battle and hell
and marching II starving. The Rus
sian hope is in Japanese exhaustion.
The japanese hope OF completing the
already great victory is in the superior
endurance OF the soldiers fighting un-
der Oyana.
There would seem to have been three
possible results of the Lao Yang bat
tie. One was victory for the Russians.
Could they have defeated and beaten
off the Japanese, crushed a large part
of their army. and then hurried a force
to relieve Port Arthur. it would have
been n historic victory. This Russia
expected. On the other hand, if the
Japs could have completed the sur
rounding of Kuropatkin and captured
his 'tIiliS, II WCuiu nave Dcell lHelT COM
plete victory. The third possibility
was about what seems to nave hap
pened-a defeat. but not humiliation.
The Japanese may yet tur defeat into
humiliation. The most K%uropatkin
can hope is to escape with his shat
tered army to Mukden.
The Associated Press of to-
days war news says:
THE dearth of official advices from
either Tokio or st. Petersburg and the
absence of press reports of current date
from the battlefield. renders the stu
tation CO I~Nuropatkin's r%etreating army
somewhat obscure. st. Petersburg re-
ports unoflcially that the Russian
army is still falling back with some
rear guard fighting. The Associated
Press correspondent sends a private
dispatch that the %censor's office has
been removed from Mukden to Hardin,
which would account for the delay In
press dispatches"
~