Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1905-04-14
The SUNNY SIDE OF LIFE IN CAMP
WITH RUSSIAN ARMY ON Shake
Richard Henry Little in Letter to Chicago News
Tells Interesting incidents in Which Capt.
William Judson Figures.


plains east and west of Linchinpu the
!, two opposing armies have worked to
? wards each other by means of saps
and parallels, just as in regular siege
operations. Siege guns are in posi-.
!. ton on both sides, too, and each army
is in siege formation.
4 One of the features of modern war
fare is the immense amount of ground
covered by armies. Think of a battle
line that reached from New York to
Philadelphia or from Chicago almost TO
Bloomington, III. How this thing OPP
crates to knock the poetry out of war.
II would be impossible to send dis
patches from one brigade or division
to another nowadays by the old ortho-
dOx fashion of sending trooper gal
Looping madly over hill and vale with
the precious message
Telephone On the Field.
| The telephone is used. l was sitting
in a generals headquarters the other
| day when it was reported that the
| Japanese were opening a heavy fire
some miles away and that they might
| follow it up with an infantry attack.
| The general gave an order directed TO
| the commander at the threatened
point not to reply to the artillery fire
but if an infantry attack were made
to hold the ground if it took the last
man he had.
When the general finished his mes
sage his chief of staff walked over TO
telephone l had not seen before.
Tinsa-ling-a -ling.
Hello. give me Gen. Organofski."
Hello, is that the general. Who?
Stand back from the phone. Oh, yes.
Well, all right You're getting an at
tack over there. What. Oh, just
few shrapnel. What's that? Regular
thing this time of day. l see. Yes,
yes. who is he? officer? Yes, yes,
captain. What? Dead? Too bad.
Well. if anything happens, you're to
sit tight. What? Oh, yes. of course.
the general knew you would anyhow.
OF course, ha, ha, l heard that one.
Must nave been a ShimOse. What?
Fifty feet. Look here, they're getting
you located. you'll have to move. All
right, compliments to the general. Yes.
Yes. I'll look after it. Goodbye"
Japanese Entertain Russians.
While, as l have said, the relations
between the opposing pickets in the
plains seem to be somewhat strained
the war is conducted in much nicer
manner on the extreme left flank. l
saw a photograph the other day of a
group of Japanese and Russian officers
with their arms twined around each
other in the most affectiOnate manner
The background was Enthusiastically
that of a Japanese camp. The officer
who showed me the picture told me
the story. They were having cele-
bratiou in the Japanese camp and
note was sent over inviting the Rus
sian officers in their front to come
over and enjoy themselves. Five Rus
sion officers took up the invitation in
the same spirit that it was rendered
and walmly walked across the Sha in
front of the rifles of the Japanese
pickets.
Tempt Russians to Desert.
Elsewhere along the front the Japa-
pese have made trouble by an overdis-
play of affectiorate regard. For many
DAYS small parties of Japanese have
been coming out at several points and
approaching the Russian line under
flags of truce Upon reaching the Rus
sian sentries they would deposit news
papers printed in Russian giving a
Japanese version of the riots in ST.
Petersburg and also eXtravagantly
written descriptions of the delights of
being a prisoner of war in Japan. The
papers have stories of excursions, din
ners and picnics given TO the Russian
prisoners of war and the gentle init
nation that the war prisoners were
fed on champagne and caviar and di-
vided their time between roaming
around the imperial palace at Toxic
and climbing up Fujiyama- As the
object of all this attention and gener-
osity on the part of the Japanese who
sent these papers to the Russian lines
were merely TO tempt the Russian sol
diers to desert and was in direct vio-
Iation of the proper use of the nag
of truce orders have been given that
in future anybody coming out from the
Japanese lines with a bundle OF papers
and a flag of truce shall be shot at
sight.
Attaches Make Fun.
Still. "alTs quite along the Shaho.'
We have a revised version of that his
toric poem now II was composed by
Capt. Judson-copyrighte in Man
churia and Mongolia-and runs as fol
lows:
"All quiet along the Shaho. except
now and then a voyena arghent Is
nailed by the guard for a spy and then.
my gracious. the language that is used
makes the japanese tumble into their
trenches to turn back a combined at
tack"
am aware that this is not true
poetry and yet il is truer than most
poetry Capt. Judson was inspired I'M
der the following circumstances. But
before the thrilling incident / must re-
/ late first that Capt. William Judson