Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-11-22
His Hearts Brother.
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BY G. A. Stephens.

BY G. A. Stephens.
On May 26th, a few hours before
the battle of Nanshan, Capt. Okla of
The Ninth Tokyo Regiment was seat
forward with flag of truce on
mission pertaining to the Red Cross
service and it's acknowledgements. He
was young man, barely twenty, of
the Samurai class, well educated,
speaking both French and English.
From the Russian redoubts there
game down to meet the white flag
lieutenant, Alexander Vannoffsky, of
the Archangel Artillery. He, too, was
young man, and he spoke French,
as do nearly all the Russian officers.
Vannoffsky saluted stiffly, and asked
the object of the flag.
The question raised was one which
the Russian lieutenant felt obliged to
refer to his superior officer. The SER
geant accompanying him was there
fore sent back with written note for
instructions, and delay of some
minutes ensued.
To pass the time while they stood
there waiting, Capt Okla began con-
versation with his youthful opponent,
very formally at first, then more cor
daily. They talked Of London, Paris
and New York, which places both had
visited.
In the fifteen or twenty minutes of
waiting each had taken liking to
the other And when at last they
saluted to separate and go back, there
was still further exchange of cour-
tesies, and the young Japanese officer
placed his hand on his breast and
said, "You are my hearts brother for
the future"
Twice afterward as the great siege
went on and opportunity offered, Capt.
Okla sent his good wishes to Lieut..
Vannoffsky, with the expressed hope
that no harm had come to his hearts
brother" And in August, just after
the great assault when twenty-five
thousand Japanese fell, the Russian
was able to transmit a penciled note
or greeting to this young friend of an
alien race, with warmest remem-
ORANGES, and signed, "Thy Alexandra
WITCH"
Amid the fearful vicissitudes of
those weary days there seemed little
likelihood that they would meet
again. Yet meet they did six weeks
later-but under what terrible cir
cumstances and after what horrors!
1t was at the wedge of DEATH
that blood-staintd zigzag, which Gen.
Nogi finally drove through the earth
UP to the very parapet of the lofty
Russian fort, known as the Eternal
Dragon"
This was after 1908 Meter HilI, had
been taken by the Japanese, and their
huge mortars had destroyed, by plung-
ing fire, what was left of the Russian
fleet in Port Arthur harbor. Yet still
1t was found impossible to take Port
Arthur by assault The line of lofty
forts on the heights, surrounded by
broad meats, often forty feet deep.
proved inaccessible. Every approach
was over a tangled thicket of barbed
WIRE into which currents of electricity
could be turned from dynamos hiden
In bomb proofs. Night attacks were
Of no avail, for searchlights played
constantly, and star-bombs scattered
blazing phosphorus over the glaces or
the forts and for miles around.
After their frightful losses during
the last week in August, the Japanese
were forced to adopt the slower, safer
method of regular siege operations
with trenches, zigzags and tunnels
carried UP beneath the walls of the
forts, which were then blown up with
dynamite In this Hercuiean effort
they excavated nineteen miles OF
trenches in the hard earth and rock.
always at least six feet deep and eight
feet wide, frequently deeper and
covered over with planks and earth.
1t was one of these zigzags, now ad-
vanced up near the moat of the
Eternal Dragon fort, which became
known to the armies as the Wedge OF
DEATH
More soldiers lost their lives here
than would have flied the trench with
their bodies and covered all the
ground about it four deep. It was