The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-11-01
Ten Years After-How Japanese Enter
prise and Industry Has Transformed
Scene of the Historic Struggle

Ior death Of the owner Of the tai war
boots found standing beside them.
Whether she who wore them was re-
incarnation OF Joan of Arc, colonies
devoted wife or reckless lady of lighter
love, who can tell? The little slippers
would fit many foot. one Russian
woman at least was found to have served
In soldiers uniform through most Of the
siege. From her picture it can he con-
cluded that the slippers were not hers.
After lunch. accompanied by tn good
| Captain lIuSOkaWa of the CuaSt \ j.
| icry, who commanded q battery in the
battles ON the eastern front during tho
siege, we started in carriages ~ The
sweep of the northeast mountain road
that rises gradually to the foot of the
| hill on which stood the fort OF Tung-chi-
| kwan-san. Ascending to the narrow
plateau We gaz, Il across the valley to
| Takushan, which. as an outwork. cost
So many noble lives in the assault of
August 8.
Great was the struggle for the fort
above us, but | was anxious to see the
North Port of Kwan-san. where war
| was at its worst, and Erlungshun. the
! most extensive permanent Russian
| work. and with the North Fort the
| most stubbornly contested We passed
around the valley edge behind the noun
| tain and wound up tn where the North
Fort had been dug for the most part
from the solid rock. What II must have
| looked in its strength and PRIDE ono
might guess from the ruins.
A rock cut fosse twenty feet deep
and as many wide had surrounded it.
| The galleries and barrat ks had been
followed fr IN the rock and arched over
with massive reinforced concrete in
| which steel rails formed a network.
| So Of the classmates and lunettes. Held
10y a sufficient force of rifiemen armed
ds it was with heavy G-inch guns. quick
fircrs and machine guns, it would seem,
while ammunition lasted impre enable
| to any attack save that of General
Hunger and General thirst; yet it was
| bitten into by the desperate teeth Of
Japan in a series of terrific fights, and
| occupied in part and so held literally
breast ~ breast with the enemy.
1t was here that General Kondratenko,
| the life and soul of the heroic defence,
was killed by AN ll-inch shell on Dccem-
Der 10, when the generals with whom
he was holding council were killed also.
With final explosion of dynamite fol-
lowed by a blasting hand to hand strug-
&c with the last defenders, slam al
most To man, 1t passed into the
hands of the japanese On December is.
Now ten years after, all was still
appalling ruin. Shattered countcrscarp,
exploded roof, crumbling passages
choked with broken rock met the eye
in succession. bending low after cross
ing the fosse on the pile of detritus,
one Crawlcd into these stricken halls
of the strong and saw IN the galleries
the sam agony of broken arch AMI
rock column Oh all sides.
Here it was that the japanese after
months Of sapplnS and mining and en-
plodlng gained corner of the fort Jui
held it, the defenders unable TO dis
lodge them ana they unable to galn
an inch. In addition to machine guns
each side stormed the other in his
Little corner of hell with hand grenade
> of dynamite, pauslnE every now AMI
then in truce of mercy To eNtricate
and bury their dead. and again begiu-
ming the work of mutual eXtcrmindtiun
in the heart of the hill. How had the
beleaguered strong ever come to that
dire pass how had the advancing foe
come with life SO far?
out on the glacis beyond the fosse
: one looked down on the wide apron of
the hill 10 now smiling valley lhrcc-
. quarters of a mile wide and then rising
gently To the slopes of the lower forth
fled hills beyond. 1t had been no easy
: task to reduce these outlying sCntInels.
! Miracles of Valur had been multiplied
in creeping up their fronts and sides by
> night and day before hey had been
captured. But the same method failed
utterly on the greater works.
!, In the first assaults thousands fell
capt. Hosokawa told me that for tive
, days his battery, stationed two M :
. away, had rained 3-inch shells ON the
roof OF the fort. AS we'll have pounded
;. ii with dried peas" he said. The "humdn
, bullet" scheme had been tried aud
despite partial successes failed. I'll, ,v
was nothing FOR it but tho spade and
, he heavy gun,
n So We look with understanding down
;, the slope to the right for half a mile
e and see the cash of the great zigAI;
n | line of the approach by trcnchng tools
@ 1t had been slow work deep and open
| and not long To be concealed from the
d | bcsieged At last Il reached IA point
: where not only could II be seen but
$ could not be protected, and then the
n engineers rcsorted to the tunnel Not
n long had they been at this when the
!, Russians found It out and began furi-
!, ously to countermine toward the lapn-
"A nrse-iWn sets ~ human mnlcs scrapin1
d their way IL meet in the dark,
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