The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-07-31
THE FLIGHT FROM MUKDEN.
Described by Man Who Went
 Along,

Described by a Man Who Went Along.
 As I hurriedly left the Ia Lama's house upon the salutary explosion which wrecked the Hun River. bridge, mad which shook the entire region. knew that the whole main body of the army of the center was moving; tere could be no other conclusion. And in moment I saw that was yet in the van of a considerable body of troops be- cause the miscellaneous small bodies of military adjacent to and occupying the temples where lived, though they were ready for the march, were only just about to move off,
 An immense tower of smoke, formid- able and grand filling the sky over the railway settlement, confronted me as l stepped into the court. did not delay beyond a moment of involuntary hesi- tation and wonder. It was an instan- taneous revelationAthe place was in 1 flames.
 One hundred yards from the gate | house, as my carter and with all the baggage turned the corner of the same small native houses which they had oc- cupied during the winter, cartridges were exploding in the flames. It was early, and this region, just outside the west mud wall of Mukden, as was the entire plain about the settlement, was covered with an uncanny light-the shadows of the settlement smoke. A couple of hundred yards further on, where the alley opened out from be- tween the temples on to the cattle market, a scene confronted us which. no painter can exaggerate. Under l shadows of the towers of rising smoke, moving off to the east, are quadruple, sextuple lines of horse and foot in all degrees of military panoply, order, dis order and discipline, beating up a dull blue dust as they choke up the road. where they cannot hope to pass for hours. They are arriving by four or five roads converging on a spot further on whose sole exit northWard lies along the mud wall, of the city where the road is narrow and confined on the open side by a vast native graveyard, | thick with impossible mounds extend l ing to the railway verst to the west! The air is mixed with the fumes of the burning settlement. The Chinese rus- tics, awed by the ominous sight, stand i up. amazed and curious along the top ! of the ruinous wall, surveying this tide of horses and humanity and apparatus surging out of the south and out of the i doomed settlement, which now begins to be raucous and weird with pilfering , soldiers running here and there. testing wines and liquors in the abandoned sut- lers' shops, contesting for drink with the fire and smoke and with the native | hoodlums and cut-throats. Later on they fall into disorder and insubordina- | t1on, and in a final orgy unconfned, roam over the fields and city, even f1nd- ing their way intoxicated as far as the Northern Tombs, and are taken by the advancing Japanese, In fact, specta- tors on Mukden walls observed soldiers near midday, when the Japanese were in possession of the north gate of the city, comfortably and deliberately eat ing and drinking along the west. It was a moment when the Japanese threatened to cut the army asunder, 1 ten versts to the north.
 l The drivers of the army wagons now badger each other. for the right of way, 1 which at the jam is wide enough for two teams abreast. The day is too young for pickering and strife. But in an hour there is contention at this spot, and one with small gift of prophecy may clearly foresee what will take place in the heat of noon.
 Finding it impossible to cross through the chawing, champing line, saving and I rf.nn 4,,.. into the first opening and we are car ried along with the flood, the drivers submitting to the invasion without pro- test. It requires about an hour to en- circle the west wall, passing in and out among some of the smaller graves, get ting severely jammed here and there among the heavier wagons. During this hour a certain amount of clothing, bread, firewood and utensils fall into | the road, where 1t is impossible to res- cue them because of the surging behind and the certainty of losing place alto- gether.
 The men only laugh at these mishaps Lit is a kind of sport. Presumably a. few wheels are smashed. Singletrees l begin to snap, the wagons to block the road. Here is a carcass of beef fallen in the dust, and it calls for remarks a plenty from the drivers. Soldiers and Chinese have chopped out pieces of the frozen meat in passing. The disabled wagons are lost in the hosts behind. None seems to obstruct the road ahead we must be in the van of our own column. The roads to the left and right are full of moving armies. as is our own; we have our own road, it is still @ road.
 man, recognizing me as corre- spondent, says, by way of salutation: