The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-22
FROST. WAR AND '12
Three Combinations Have Marched Down Through History Together

From Answers,
 1tiis IS years since sxe last had a hard winter There has nes Teen fortnight $ skating on end in the south of England since ls94-5. Rain. gleoln, fog, sometimes a half-hearted attempt al snow have been our winters ever since.
 Weather experts declare that another big cold snap is due and they point to 1879, when q summer exactly like the r. plorable one of 1912 was followed by weeks on end of bitter frost and whirling snow drifts 4
 IT it comes-if the year 1912 is going to renew the old time trar'ition of hard wiH- ters-it will add just one more to a long train of really amazing eoincidences Fol the fact is that there has hardly ever been a European war. cn q big scale in which General Jack Frost has not taken hand
 Go back century. Eighteen hundred and twelve was the veal when Napoleon made up his mind to invade Russia Be. fore starting ho was careful to inquire of the experts at WInt date winter us ually set in in southLin Russia. They told him the middle of December.
 It was on June "A that he invaded Rus sia with 600,00o men, aud he reached Mos COW on September Il. That night fire broke out, and within five days the cit} was burned to the srnand. Even then he remained until October IS before com- mencins his retreat.
 In the last week of October began tho worst frost which Europe had known fof three generations. The Thames froze from it's source to the sea. The Seine, the Rhine, the Danhhe were all ica- bound on the Adriati off Venice. was seen the amazing sight of floating iee noes The Hellespont and the Darden- elles were frozen. Jack Frost's icy finger lay heavy even upon North Africa. DrIft ice appeared in the Me, and there were snowstorms in Tripoli and Morocco.
 As for Napoleon huge army, it was almost wiped out EoIr hundred thou sand men perished. They froze to death in batallions as they bivouacked, and when at last on Deeeinher 6, Napoleon reached German soil, cut of his whole vast host but l3O000 men were left alive.
 During the winter Of 1S53-4 the Turks were battling for dear life along fhe Danube against hordcs of Russians. In the following September 25,oJ0 British troops, q similar number of French and sOo0 Turks were landed in the crimea.
 Again came a terrible winter and from the West of Ireland light across into Asia fl ost fell heavy on land and sea. In London it froze for six weeks without a break From January Il to February I the thermometer was below freezing every night In the Crimea the cold was fearful and our army. disgracefully ca tered for, suffered h,ulibly. In all we lost 2O006 men. and os these only l2 per cent fell in battle The rest were de stroyed by cold and disease, aggravated | by q rotten commissar:at
 In 1870 came the biggest war of the la . ter half of the 18th century, the titanic conflict between France and Germany. By october 29 there were s500OO German | troops in France. Paris was besieged, and there began the foDr months Invest ment with furious fighting on both sides. Again Jack Frost came to the aid of the 1 Germans. A long spell of intense cold made life almost impossible for the half starved French while the Germans. who had the whole country to draw on, be- sides their own excellent commissariat, suffered very little. Es January the city was in such a terrible condition that 1t surrendered.
 | The date of the last great war in which Turkey was engaged was 1877. The Turks were attacked by the enormously supe- rior force of Russians, with the Czar him. self in command. Osnan Pasha, with lo0Oo men, hurried inland to Plevna, q