The Colorado statesman., 1913-01-11

| lions around Adrianople. While easy
glory was to be the fortune of Deme-
trieff, who commanded the first army
until the first army had to take po-
sitions in front without any opportu-
nifty for thanking. which was the ma
tur'' of lvanoff's task from the start.
lvanoff Wakes Up.
1t was Papastepe and Kartaltepe
which wakened Ivanoff from his dream
of final brilliant stroke in keeping
with the earlier ones of the war, just
as Tchatalia brought Demetrieff down
from the clouds of overconfidence.
Papastepe is one of many hills in the
narrowing rib of the 203 Meter Hill
of the siege. With guns in position
there, Adrianople would be under
bombardment. The Bulgarians took
1t by sending in the usual cloud of in
fantry and losing about a thousand
men. But the Turks took it back
again. Four times, / am told, it
changed hands in the course of those
night actions which we observed only
by the brilliant flashes in the sky
| above the hills.
Far up the valley in the mist was
kartaltepe, that other important hill
which commanded the river bottom of
the Arda. We took Kartaltepe in No
vember and month afterward, in one
of their splendid sorties. the Turks,
so far as / could learn, had taken it
back: but it was as untenable for
them as Papastepe was for the Bull
garians. Possibly because it was again
ours and very evidently ours perma-
nently, the Bulgarian censors had
found it worth while to confound
skepticism and persistent unfriendly
rumors by allowing the correspon-
dents to enter the promised land of
their dreams, where for weeks. be-
tween the batteries on the hills and
the infantry in the muddy river bot
tom of the Arda, hell had ragged in the
winter rains.
We did not know then, as we were
to know few days later. that beyond
kartaltepe in the direction of Dele
Catch was another force isolated from
the Adrianople garrison and the main
Turkish army, that of Taver Pasha
with 10000 men, caught in the literal
Hood of that 100-yard dash of the
ready, informed prepared aggressor
against the unready enemy taken un-
aware and fastening re-enforcements
to the scattered garrisons and trying
to adjust itself for the blow to fall
with the crash of pile driver releas-
ed from its clutch.
Discloses War Secret
But Taver Pasha's 10000 were still
force in being, with guns and full
equipment-a force in box; a force
in desperation.
DO you see the Adrianople garrison
(Which was in touch by wireless with
the Turkish main army striking out
to connect up with Taver Pasha? Do
you see Taver Pasha trying out lines
of least resistance in a savage effort
to reach Adrianople or the main Tur-
kish army?
Something to stir the blood. this in
the way of a war drama, while not a
single foreign correspondent or at
tache knew even of the existence of
Taver Pasha's command until its sur
render.
The news of this was conveyed with
the official assurance that now no 9TH
er Turkish force except that of Adri.
anople remained in Thrace, when we
had been under the impression for
over month that it was the only
one! The censors did not smile as
they posted the bulletin, but some of
the correspondents smiled-at them.
selves.
No, after the first rainbow hope of
successful general attack was over.
Ivanoff was fully occupied in holding
Adrianople safely in siege. That bat
terry of old Krupps. which fired over
the advanced Servian infantry posi-
tion, while a battery of Creusots in
turn fired over it, added their items of
evidence to the same end.
These Krupps were taken by the
Russians at Plevna in the war of 1877
rs and given to the little army of the
new nation of Bulgaria. Bulgarian re-
cruits had dragged them through the
muddy roads and over the pastures
and beautifully emplaced them, and
were working them against the enemy
with boyish pride. But the world was
thinking only of the modern Creusots
and their brilliant showing.
The Bulgarians almost proved that
you can make bricks without straw.
They won the war by the bravery of
their self-confidence as well as by
their courage.
Adrianople, which was about to
starve If it did not fall had, l am con-
vinced, two months supplies when the
armistice was signed. With the 19
and 20-year-old conscripts already on
the way to the front. with casualty
list that is easily one-fifth of the whole
army, there was no sign of weakening.
The square chin of the stoical Bull
garian was as firmly set as ever. I
wonder what wnnld hnnnnn IL, u.,...>.