Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1904-12-17

the collapsed heap of man on the
pavement outside a public house on
the doorstep of which stands, trucu-
lent in rolled-up sleeves, the barman
who has just elected him. He half
scrambles, is half assisted. to his I'M
steady feet, rubs his eyes and looks
incredulously at the unaccustomed col
or which his hands have carried away
from his nose.
What was 1t?, he asks in a dazed
sort of way. What was it 1 tumbled
over?''
Come 'ome, Bill" says Prudence,
his friend, automatically; come just
little way up the street. You caught
your foot in something. You don't
want no disturbance here-not to-
night"
And Bill, with a little natural reluc-
lance, allows himself to be persuaded.
Atthe corner of the street, when the
barman has gone inside, Bill facing
round, shakes his fist in the direction
of the closed door and says: "All
right, you. You wait bit. l know
where to put my and on you when 1
want you-you and half a dozen like
you. Grinnin', bloomin' monkey"
Then he recalls, with the sympathetic
assistance of his friends, the unfore-
seeable circumstances that extenuate
the fact.
The Only Way.
Well, there is Liaoyang, away down
the street, with the Japanese in pos
session; and here are we. the Russian
army, back in Mukden trying to under
stand how it all happened. Frankly,
we do not understand it at all. Our
blurred; but, as far as we are able to
remember, when it came to straight
fighting, man 40 man, we were as good
as he was, and gave at least as good
as we got. He won't see too well with
that right eye of his in hurry, and
you could see for yourself, by the way
he was nursing it, that the knuckles
of his left hand were badly abraded,
but, as Bills extenuating sympathizers
explained it. You see your back was
too close up against the partition and
he came over the counter sudden in
stead of through the saloon as you
natchly expected; SO it couldn't be
helped; you had to CO."
With us it was the flank that did it
the position the Japanese had held
from the beginning of the war in the
hills on our east flank. We did we'll
enough in the fighting, division against
division, man against man, but when
it come to moving, to the making OF
fresh dispositions, geography was
against us-we were too close up
against the partition. We. could not
dislodge them-poor, brave. harassed
Keller had worn himself out and final
ly had lost his life in successive dash
ing, hopeless endeavors-and when it
came to the moving of army corps
there was only one way to move-out.
To advance southwark, even suppos-
ing that it had been possible to drive
the Japanese back in that direction,
was only to run again into danger; to
advance eastward against the hill po-
sitions had been demonstrated to be
suicide; to move westward, except to
counter, was starvation and destruc
ton. 1t was only by a movement
northward that the troops could be
employed with any hope of utility
against the Japanese, and to move
northward was another word for re-
treat.
Preparing for Great Blow.
On the 26th, 9th and 2Sth of Aug
ust there had been three days of MUIR
derous fighting that do not count Each
day saw much fighting, of which no
one now seems to know anything. It's
Importance and it's fury, almost the
memory of it, were blotted out by the
overwhelming experiences that fol
lowed.
1t was merely the fighting incident
al to the final disposition for the great
struggle The Japanese were closing
up their front within striking distance,
and driving outposts back upon the
main Russian positions, until the two
armies were ranged in two cencentric
semi-circles, of which Liaoyang was
the center The Russians, to meet
the coming attack, had withdrawn for
the advantage of concentration, as far
as concentration could be carried with
out degeneration into OvercrOwding-
With the inside track and the shorter
arc of the inner circle, Gen. Kouro-
patkin could bring as many of his
troops as he desired to bear in which
ever direction the turn of events migh5
make desirable; and if necessary the
whole power and weight of the army
could be launched in one terrific blow
against Kuroki alone on the top of the
eastern plain
The Japanese, so much wider
spread, were incapable of any such
quick concentration They were three
distinct armies, which could act in
concert but not in unity
But suppose the Japanese did not
make a perilous frontal attack? Sup
| pose, instead, that Kuroki moved