Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-01-12
ECHOES FROM THE WAR
Features of Winter Quarters of
 Kuropatkin's Army.
DUGOUT CITIES ON THE SEA RIVER

That Resemble Prairie Dog Towns. Some Dugouts Have Windows and Are Aristocratic Anairs. With a Main Building, Wings and an "L"
 or Two-Port Arthur Siege Events. The Russian army is already in win ter quarters around Mukden and along the Sha river and the position west of the railway, says Richard H. Little, special correspondent of the Chicago News, writing from Mukden under the 1 date of Nov. IS.
 Manchuria is treeless region. com ; paratively speaking, but the Russian soldiers for the most part are from the same sort of country, and they build their winter quarters just as they build their peasant homes on the great tree less plains of southern Russia or Sibe- ria. These huts that the soldiers have constructed are what are called dug outs" in the Dakotas and Minnesota and look very much like the hIsrs built by the newly arrived farmers in those states, though usually they are not so large.
 These dugouts seem to have jumped up in q single night for miles in every direction around Mukden. The fact is that 1t doesn't take much more than a night to build one. First pit is dug. If for a small dugout it is only six feet wide and eight feet long and two feet deep. Then a trench two feet wide and two feet deep is made down the center of this first excavation. This trench gives a shelf of earth on each side of the hut where one man may sleep. ly
 One end of this trench or center aisle in the basement elevation of the new mansion under construction iJ bricked over, and chimney is made. Thus the furnace is placed in position. A frame work is built over the excavation for the roof, which is made by simply pill ing back on to the framework the earth taken from the basement. A door is now made or borrowed from a de serted Chinese house, and the soldiers who have toiled to erect the pictur- esque cottage disappear within and be gin housekeeping.
 like prairie dog towns than anything else and the soldiers pop up out of them and disappear back into them again for all the world like prairie dogs. Of course there are infinite varia tions in the houses. though all are construct ed on the same general principles. But in some of them real windows are put in at the ends or on the sides. Some are aristocratic affairs with main building and wings and an l. or two connected. the whole forming quite an extensive underground estate. To the east, in the foothills and noun tains. stones seem to grow out of the ground as they do in New England, and there the huts are made of. stones and lined with stones as well.
 In some places the huts and dugouts of the soldiers form fair sized towns. numbering 10000 population, the size of the army corps which inhabits the place. Here the streets are laid out in regular order and have been appro- priately named by the soldiers. There is always Neva prospect. kuropat- kin avenue also Is common. Other streets are named after cities and towns in Russia. One thriving dugout city down near the Japanese position along the Sha river has a street called Shimose avenue for painfully apparent reasons. and another unpopular street is called Sbrapnel road.
 Life is quiet in the dugout cities now that the cold weather has set in.
 Incidents of the siege of Port Arthur have been gleaned from letters written by soldiers in the beleaguered fortress. The following extracts were printed in the London News:
 An unpleasant but apparently. from the defenders point of view. edifying scene is the hanging of Japanese and Chinese spies. Corporal Karneyeff says: We have the hanging of spies on our hands as we'll as fighting. It's a good thing and teaches the Chinamen not to betray us. One was hanged this morning in full sight of the Japs. He was our generals (Stoessers, own scrv ant. One morning he came into the generals study with a snug grin 10 sweep the room. The general sent him for something and said, Run. quick" The Chinaman started to run. but slip ped. and from under his blue jacket fell roll of paper. It was map or something. So the Chinaman was hang cd. When he was strung up and dead one of our men said. Let's have T shot at the Chinaman.' and fired at him. The blood flowed from the Chinaman's nose. and m officer came up and gave our man the devil"
 Apparently even the sense of a com mon peril does not conduce to perfect peace Another soldier describes the re- suits of quarrel:
 "Buikoff and another man had fight yesterday. Buikoff had his boot in his hand and slung it round. smashing in the other mans face and. in fact. near ly killing him. The general had said that he would shoot any one caught fight ing. so we thought R. was done for. And so he was in a way. But when the general heard that B. was the man who stood in Panling trench after All the others were killed he let him of wit,i a f1ogging. Buikoffs back was like a Jap's soul. as we say. all scared with their sins"