The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1905-04-01
Nv Will H. Brill.

Nv Will H. Brill.
Field Headquarters H. I. ]. M.
Second Army, on the Way to Mukden,
March AT last, after waiting for
more than four months, we are again
at work A great battle has begun
and by tomorrow or the next day we
will be in the thick of the fighting
again. AS write the guns only a
couple of miles from us are roaring
away at a terrific rate, making so
much noise that a man 10 feet away
from me has to yell to make himself
heard.
Yesterday afternoon the lombard
ment, which we know is the first step
in the general attack soon to be
made, began. All along the line. go
or 20 miles in length, the artillery
opened and pounded shells into the
Russian lines.
The bombardment of the Shusham-
pu hills Just six months ago was the
time. A month later it was surpass-
ed by the artillery duel at the Sha
Ho. Today it is as if both these
bombardments were rolled into one
The paper windows of the Chinese
house in which / am writing rattle
like a drum, and occasionally with
a particularly heavy volley the earth
itself trembles. The roar has been
so loud and so constant all day that
our ears are becoming tired and the
slightest cessation of the roar is
painful.
AWAY to the right we can hear the
roar of the great 11.2 howitzers, the
largest guns ever used in the field.
The roar of these guns, although
| they are miles away, browns all the
other pandemonium of sound. 1t is
almost as If the entire world had
blown I'D. We are too far away to
see these guns, but we can hear them
and that is enough.
The Overture of Death.
The accompaniment of this great
overture of battle is played by the
field guns, hundreds of which are at
work. Their steady roar is the ground
work of the music which is made by
| lle OlfleIS. llC il'so it VIC ,iobpiN
bass of this orchestra of war; the is
and the inch long Toms" are the
| trombones and the comets; the small
| field howitzers are the flutes and the
| cellos; the mOrtars are the bass
horns; while the moan of the great
| shells and the shiek of the smaller
| ones are the shrill notes of the pic
| of NJ the m l.
| chine guns and the other unaccount-
| able sounds of battle are the rattle
| of the drums and the miscellaneous
| noises of the tympani. 1t is such an
| overture as Wagner himself never
wrote and it is the prelude to tragi-
| cal music drama the theme of which
! is death, suffering and, at last,
| glorious victory.
| OFF there to the south in the lead
er's chair. to continue the figure. sits
| a man with cigar in his mouth, his
| SCARED bronzed face lighted by as
kindly eyes as l have ever seen, and
| decorated by a short grizzled beard.
| It is Conductor Oyama. When the
| overture is finished and the great
|
| sistans, Oku, Kuroki, Nodzu, Nogi,
| and score of others, will move to
the center of the stage and. standing
silently there, will look on with keen
eyes while the flower of Japan's man.
| hood will enact another portion of
| the great war drama which has
startled the world But through 1t
all will continue the noise of the
great orchestra and the theme will
| always be the same-death and suf-
| fering.
The Advance Begins.
The japanese advance began day
before yesterday. At that time the
army which constitutes the extreme
left of the japanese line advanced in
a diagonal line and took up a posi-
ton reaching from the Hun river at
the point where it's neighboring army
was stationed to a point on the Lao