Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-08-07
When Russian Bear
AWakes Look Out!
Strength d Fighting Force Of That Guarded Country
Ittls Known Latest Estimates Of Her Army and Navy
and the an1aon Of Her Forces Tremendous Elements
d Peopl1 Involxsd in Pan German and Slavic Rivalry

trusiOn Of Magyars, Films, and sRu-
unanians, leaving q, northern, section
composed of North Russians, Poles,
Czechs, and Slovaks, and a southern
section comprising the main body Of
the Balkan people.
When Russia Aided servla.
For over q thousand years, these
Slavs have peopIed Europe east OF
the Elbe River. And for centuries
they kept the hordes Of Cossacks,
Turks. and barbarians of Europe.
Russia in those days was called the
nation of the sword This will not
be the first time that that sword has
interviewed for Servia. After 400
years Of vassalage to Turkey, the
Serbs, rebelled, in 1904, and then
only Russian intervention saved them
from defeat.
The Russian soldier is an ideal in.
strument for the sort of bold states.
manship which the prophetic Bis.
marck had in mind. He is the para
gon Of patient endurance, logged re-
sistance, and stoical fcrtitude. He is
good-natured and he never complains,
even under such conditions Of food,
hospital facilities, and housing as few
European armies are. called upon to
endure That he can die as resigned
" was proved long before his trial
on Manchurian battlefields, under in.
competent leaders. Statistics of the
Russian losses in the Napoleonic
wars in proportion to the men en-.
gagged are impressive. The percent
ages were invariably high, sometimes
IS per cent Of the men engaged, a
figure emphasized by comparison
with Italian losses, for example,
which in representative battles of the
same period were under ten per
cent.
What renders the Russian menace
so formidable in the present juncture
Ifs the unusual enthusiasm which is
being displayed. Ordinarily, the huge
population Of 171,059,9OO people is
rather apathetic toward the attitude
taken by their Emperor. At present,
judging from the demonstrations re.
ported from st. Petersburg, the Gar
may reasonably count upon having
behind him the 92,OOO,OOO Slavs
among his subjects. Moscow and
Odessa have seen similar demcnstra.
ton within the past few days, and
II, as 1t is asserted, the Gear himself
assumes command as generalissimo
Of all forces, the wave Of enthusi-
asm Is expected to sweep over the
whole empire.
Religious zeal, a powerful influ.
ence In welding the Slavs, is in evil
dence in the capital. On Wednesday
last, in the great Kazan Cathedral,
before q huge throng, prayers were
offered for the victory of Slavs arms
And beneath the banners captured
from Napoleon-among other mill
tary trophies in this national sane
tuary-the Servian Minister, for the
Servtan army, was presented with an
ikon Of the woodworking Virgin Of
Kazan, q likeness Of the Cathedral's
chief treasure. In the walls close at
hand during this ceremony were the
keys Of twenty-five captured cities.
And among them were the keys 81
Hamburg, Leipzig, Dresden, and
Rheims.
Russia's Latent Strength.
Who knows what is the strength
Of the Russian bear, once he IL rous-
ed in sullen fury? In the ten years