The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-10-14

efforts to break the allied centre had
failed. Army corps in Belgium had
been drawn down and the garrison
ing of this captured kingdom left to
the Landsturm, to middle aged men.
Yet all this had not served to re-
lieve the pressure. Repulsed at one
point the, allied fanking thrust NOV
ed always to the north. It had fall
ed at Peronne and St. Quentin. 1t
was renewed at Albert and Bapaume.
Halted here, it was felt again east
of Arras and was now mounting up
to Donai.. The battle of the Aisne
had become the battle Of the sevel
rivers.
In fact, the German offensive in
the second month had fallen to the
level of a siege aud it was the 1nvad'
ers who were being besieged. Again
and again they we're striking out with
unfaltering courage and determlna-
ton endeavoring to break the circle
of steel always closing about them.
But despite small gains they hac
made no substantial progress. The
ground they occupied they held, their
lines of communication remained In
tact. But this was the limit of their
advantage after three weeks of ef-
fort, after losses which far exceeded
those from Liege to the Marine.
Meantime the situation in the east
had gravely changed. Austrian de-
feat at Lemberg had been followed
by rout at Tomazov, at RawarusKa'
Jaraslov had fallen, Przemysl was $50
lated and invested. = Cossacks had
crowned the Carpathians and flowed
over into the Hungarian Plain. A
considerable offensive toward the Me
men from East Prussia was being
beaten down.
From the Baltic to the Carpathians
the Russian battle line was at last IN
motion, its left flank on the Carpa-
thians near Cracow, its right once
more moving into East Prussia, its
center drawing toward Posen and
Breslau, still on Russian soil, but nc
longer far from the Silesian and
Posen frontier posts, Two months
too the Gar had been allowed to
bring up his millions; in bringing
them he seemed Enthusiastically tc
have crushed Austrian military
strength, and there was left only
Germany to meet allied might in the
long feared "war Of the two fronts. =
If the first month. the "hrs,
round" had been to the Germans
was it less unmistakable on October
4 that the second had been to the
Allies? But German statesmen them
selves, in justifying their violation Of
Belgian neutrality, mad, in effect, con
fessed that to win at all Germany
must triumph in the first round; VIII
not tactically but decisively: crush
annihilate the military strength o1
France; hold Paris and the republic
to ransom, as hostage, while victo
rious western armies flowed back tc
the Niemen to deal with the armies
of the Car.
Advance of Allied Armies.
Yet on October 4 it was allied moi
German armies that were advancing
in France. AS on September 4 the
world was talking of the fall of Paris
on October 4 it was the probable ap'
proach of German retreat from
France which occupied the attention
not alone of Allies but of neutral OBJ
servers. The expectations OF the ear
lier month had proved false, those Of
October might be equally unwarrant
ed.
Yet not even in German official anG
unofficial utterances was there Longer
| the promise of victory that should
terminate the western war. What
had opened as a daring, magnificent
unriyalled effort to end war in the
first weeks OF conflict with a brieI
and irresistible drive had fallen now
to the level of a mere campaign, II
size, in extent of territory, in mum
bers engaged. unequalled in history
but still campaign, like other cam
paigns,> before, Waterloo, Sedan and
Sadowa had nourished the belief that
nations could be crushed in weeks
even in days.
So in a larger sense October 4
might be accepted as the date which
saw the close of the first phase of the
great war;, the interruption, perhaps
temporary, perhaps final, Of German
expectations, but at least the termina'
ton of the period in which she had
hoped to win quickly; the extinction
of the dream which had dominated
her military operations from Liege to
the time when the battle of the AiSne
became the battle of the seven rivers
of the three nations, for the imme-
diate battle ground now stretched
through Germany, France and Bel
gium, from the Swiss to the Dutch
ffontiers.-From The New York Eve
ming Sun.