Evening journal., 1914-12-02
American War Correspondent
Describes Battle of PrzemySI
BY WILLIAM G. SHEPHERD, United Press Correspondent

their last strength they crawl to their
knees, one after the other as priest
arouses them, and humble weakly
into his ear They fall back weakly
as the priest straightens up and
raises his hands in blessing over
them"
That's the best l can do. I've never |
learned any words that would tell
such a story as that, and Adams who
has painted emperors and kings, says
there's no brush or paint that can tell
the story on canvas.
AT last there's a picture / can't
paint" he said
And as for me. I've found a story
couldn't write.
Above all this the artillery is boom
ing and all around soldiers are work
ing, cleaning horses, building fires,
chopplng wood for the living must
live and fight as well as the dying
must die.
One figure under a blanket, an un-
shaved soldier whom the priest had
been unable to arouse, writhed and
tossed about. The priest hurried over
to that corner of the yard and stood
with outstretched hands and uplifted
face. with Red Cross docto~ standing
hC,plessly by his side, until the writh-
ing ceased with a sudden jerk and
the soldier of Austria came to his
end.
3.4O-We are having our own ex-
perience with Russian shells. Colonel
John and Captain Miakich had gone
with us to the first battery where we
intended tc say goodbye to the com
mandant when suddenly a she'll burst
on a hill two hundred PAGES from us.
We could see bits of broken shell
plough their way over the ground.
Then came salvos of shells. The Rus
SLAMS, It seemed, had felt out and
found the Austrian battery The
shells dropped in the courtyard of a
farmhouse. three hundred feet away.
Across the road from us a camp OF
hundreds of wagons, horses and men.
The sight was indescribable as they
dashed off toward hill which had q
safe leeway. For twenty minutes
shells fell in our area. First we
would hear the very distant burr
of a Russian battery; then would
come the growing shrek of the shells
and. by my watch, ten seconds later,
somewhere around us there would be
, terrific explosion which produced
clouds of intensely black smoke.
! Our battery returned salvo after
J salvo. The man at the telephone in
. the hole yelled his orders to the com
mandant. who in turn yelled to the
sixty men at the guns. whether ouI
firing did it or not, or whether the
b Russians lost the range, no one coulc
decide. hut, as suddenly as it had be-
gnn. the Russian firing ceased in oul
, direction and we ventured out TO SEE
what holes the Russian shells nae
made in the country round ABOUT, W.
found five holes as large as celiar'
and some wounded horses, but no on
!, had been killed that we could dis
q cover. IL v
: went back to the creek and climbed li'
= orr wagon for the return to fTzemys
q The reserve men had come down trol
a the hillside where they had waited a
y dav and were beginning to cross tn
. bridge towards the ifohV. Inc VIM
; horse that we had seen among them
+ the morning was ridden by young cal
tain with bristling mustache. w
nassed hundreds of camp fires and u
e strings of wagons still filed the roa
e as they had done in the morning, and
z, thev had done every minute OF the da,
q and as they will do as long as there al
y hundreds Of thousands of death hungr
IS men or sickly wounded dying men q
y the Przemysl battle-ground.
10 6.3O-I am back in Przemysl II WI
g nv first day of actual battle. ha'
seen war at first hand. As for Il
5 safety of Przemysl, it is certain. III
d Austrian soldier is taking his war wi
d enthusiasm, and 1 saw more smiliI
IL faces today and heard more heart
W laughs than I'd see or hear on Il
d. streets of New York in a whole mont
S. You can measure the morale of an arm
IS bv how much il smiles and by how Il
a. tie it worries, and this part of the Au
~ trian army around Przemysl isn't worr
m ing at all, that I can see Most of 4
a dav The Archduios Leopold SalvatC
A chief inspector of artillery, was at o
W point or another of the Austrian Ii
E. and ], myself, saw a she'll fall with
Is less than three city blocks of him.