Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1913-01-08
FREDERICK PALMER TELLS HOW
THEY STOPPED THE ADVANCE
OF THE BULGARS.
PROVED MATCH FOR ALLIES
Fighting on the Defensive From the
Start, Their Brave Resistance at
AdrlanopIe Saved the Ottoman
Capital From Capture.
BY FREDERICK PALMER
Staff Correspondent of the Chicago
Record-HeraId in the Balkan War.

Mustapha Pasha.-The minarets of
Sultan Selim!
Needle-like, l have seen them rise
over the indistinct mass Of Adriano-
pie from the distant hills then as sub
stantial columns from the nearby
hills, and again so close from the
shellproof of an advanced infantry po-
sition that I could make out the til
fngs on the dome of the great mosque
itself
The simple grace OF the minarets
dominated town, and landscape, and
siege. Weary drivers of the weary
oxen of the transport and still wearier
artillerymen, bringing up additional
guns through seas of mud, saw them
for the first time as a token of de-
tance, of work unfinished, of battles
yet to be fought, and of lives yet to
be lost.
Infantrymen in the advanced
trenches saw them as the goal against
foe which had fallen back without
any adequate rear guard section, but
which had begun to fight desperately
under their shadows.
That Turkish garrison, as it with
drew into the shelter of its forts,
seemed to find something of the spirit
of old Sultan Selim the Magnificent,
for whom the mosque was named, but
with this difference: Sultan Selim
was not given to falling back on
forts and minarets. He stormed forts;
he went ahead to plant new minarets
in The soil of Christendom.
Rouses Old Turks Spirit.
From the first in this war the Turk
took the defensive; from the first he
accepted it as his part and portion of
the campaign.
In Bulgaria, where many Turks
still live under Christian rule, we had
seen the Terrible Turk, the great
fighting man of the past, whose soul
was supposed to be above lowly toll,
as newer of wood and a carrier of
water. He did odd jobs in the alb
sence of the Bulgarian at the front
The lion of the past had been trained
to dog harness.
All the early victories of the Bull
of one-tfme lordly race demoralized
and enervated, who retained only the
fatalism of "Kismet," in its lexicon.
The warriors cry, For Allah" was
lost forever. But at Adrianople For
Allah! For the Minarets! For the
Padishah!" rose again to the dignity
which abandoned bravery always COM
mands.
The sheer, impetuous fearlessness
Of the Bulgarian, well drilled and cool
y manipulated, was the first great
revelation of the campaign, and the
second was how, in the hour of hope
lessness, his desperation aroused the
old qualities of the Turk.
Every situation, every development
in the war reverted to Adrfanople 1t
was the nut to crack in the first plan
OF strategy OF the campaign. It how
cred over the first army before Tcha-
ITALIA as nightmare. It stood In the
way of the prompt supplies of bread
and bullets for the first army; it de-
layed the signing of the armistice for
ten days; 1t has been the main sub
Ject Of contention before the London
peace conference; it was responsible
for the treatment of the military at
taches. who saw nothing of the war,
and Of the espondents-who saw
little
War Hinges on AdrianopIe.
Even our phlegmatic little English
speaking censor assistant at Musta-
pha would lose his temper at the very
suggestion Of any peace terms with
Adrianople still in Turkish possession.
I'VE shall have a revolution if we
don't get Adrianople." I have heard
many officers say.
We shall not go home without
Adrianople," the wounded soldiers re-
turning from the front kept repeating
Such were the instructions which
DR.. Daneff, the Elihu Root of the Bal
kans, took with him to London. Ad-
rianople was craven on the minds of
his countrymen.
Glance at map and you will see
that the whole success of the allies
depended on bottling up the Turk on
the peninsula, so that all the other
Turkish forces from Scutari to Adri-
anople, from Kumanova to Elassona.
should be cut off from communication
The Greeks, Serbs, and Montenegrins
were the backs The Bulgarians IN
dertook to buck the line.
Bulgaria did not have to consider a
reserve army. European public opin-
ion and the jealousies of the powers