Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1913-08-15

Adrianople in their possession.
The Bulgarian treatment Of the cor
respondents is one Of the many indi-
cations that the Bulgarian stan did
expect at one time to take Adrianople
by storm.
It was argued by serious CORE
spondents who did not feel that they
ought to waste their time Dr. the
money of their papers In idleness, that
the Bulgarian government ought not
to have received any correspondents
at all. But this was not logic to the
government. The press represented
public opinion. 1t could serve q
purpose. and all the college professors
In the land who spoke any foreign
language found their work in the COM
mon cause, no less than grandfather
found his in driving an OK cart and
the women In making bread.
The plan was well thought out, and
the regulations, which would fill a col
umn, left nothing that occurred to
officers or college professors out Of
consideration. No mention was to be
made OF the wounded, nor even of the
weather. II 1t we're bad, for bad wealth
er might tell the enemy that the roads
were bad.
While many an imaginary account,
because 1t had the similitude of nara
tive which characterizes all convinc-
Ing fiction, was hailed as real war
correspondence, the Bulgarian staff,
when 1t came to actual reports tex
elusive OF massacres), was scrupulous-
ly exact and exasperatingly late and
brief.
All praise by the press kept the
ball OF the prestige Of victory rolling.
1t helped to convince the powers and
the Turk that the Bulgarian army was
irresistible. The stage climax Of the
whole campaign would be the fall of
Adrianople. Therefore were the cor
respondents moved to Mustapha
Pasha, just Lule Burgas was being
won; and Constantinople, being then
supposedly defended only by a de-
moralized army, which could not make
a stand, every report from Mustapha
Pasha which showed that Adrianople
was on the point of capitulation added
to the stage effect of Bulgarian tri-
umph.
Turks Defy the BuIgars.
AS the first Bulgarian army drew
near the Tchatalja lines, the mise en-
scene was complete; but Nazim Pasha,
making use of the elapsed time to for
tify the Tchatalja lines, rather than
submit to the humiliating terms Of
fered, babe the Bulgarian hosts
come on"
Success had turned the heads ever
OF the Bulgarian staff. They had
begun to think that the old fighting
quality was out of the Turk, and 80
willing vas the Bulgarian infantry to
undergo slaughter that 1t was only a
case of recording another charge Of
flesh against %shrapnel and automatic
gun fire, and the day was won.
Alas, an old principle Of war, deal
ing with an impossibility of the same
order as squaring the circle In mathe-
mates, was now to bring g%eneralship
back from the clouds to solid earth.
You can take strong positions in
front only with time by sapping and
mining and all the weary operations
of a siege, as the indomitable Grant
learned by the failure of his first rush
attack at Vicksburg and the indom-
table Nogi learned by the failure Of
the first rush attack at Port Ar
thur.
In a week any army that has spades
and a few Of the of mate
rial which should be part of the store
house at its base should make such a
position as that of the series of rising
hills back Of Tchatalja fully tenable
against any but siege attack, unless
there was room for a flank attack.
Turks Turn the Tables.
And the breadth Of the position
open to infantry approach in any at
tempt at storming was o~ly 16 miles,
while from either sea side of the mar
row peninsula the Turkish navy could
bring INTO play more powerful guns
than any Demetrieff had at his dis
posal.
At the same time there is to be kept
in view the generally accepted tenet
that you must not send infantry
against any well entrenched position
until its batteries are silenced or It
Is known that they IA be kept under
control during the infantry attack
by a we'll concentrated fire of your
own batteries.
Demetrieff used his guns for a day
in trying to develop the strength and
location of the enemy's batteries. But
the Turks would not be drawn. At
last the tables were turned.
Meanwhile Adrianople also was tell.
ing. You may discuss as much as you
please whether the original plan of
the Bulgarian staff was to mask this
fortress or to take it by storm, the
fact remains that the only result was
to mask 1t. and the lesson was that
any garrison in the rear of an advan-
cling army, though 1t is held securely
in investment, remains a mighty force
in being for the enemy's purpose.
Nature meant Adrianople to be a
fortress. Past 1t on the south flows