The Alaska daily empire., 1914-08-17
POLAND BECOMES
 BATTLEFIELD AGAIN
(By Gertrnde b. Mallette.l )

A century and half ago Poland was ranked one of the most formidable of the European powers, today she stands, to quote Catherine of Russia the door.mat of Germany and Russia For Poland of today there are two possibilities, and the realization on one of them must come soon. Dis. membered Poland will either again be united under one flag or she will be hurled Into an oblivion blacker and more horrible than her present state by being made the battle ground for three or more nations, a condition which will force the Polish in Ger. many to fight against their Polish brothers in Russia.
 A vandal race until the tenth cen. tury, when she became converted to Christianity and took her place among European powers, Poland held her own until the fatal period of her dis memberment in 1772. Under John Sobeski in the thirteenth century Pc land had attained a glory that ecllpsed all contemporary powers when she routed the Mohammedans then threat ening the capture of Vienna. But when the crucial test came, in the lat. ter part of the 18th century, Poland was not ready, she was in the midst of that period which every nation of the world has known, the period in which her nobles were "egolsts re. fusing to unite for the sake of their nation, and warning with each other" the period in which her kings were kings in name only, the period in which she felt the fatal lack of na. tional trades.people class, the very sinew of nations the world over.
 The willy Catherine took advantage of Poland's condition, and, allied with Frederick of Prussia and Maria Tere- ga of Austria, proceeded to effect the dismemberment of the Polish realm. Hers was the lot of a conquered peo. pie and the stolid downtrodden Pole today realizes that he still must obey the sovereign command and fight where he is ordered to fight. But on the battle field, in the home, anywhere, everywhere, the Pole still claims his racial heritage, he is still dreamer, still imbued with the hope of being united under one flag. Although the law forbids the teaching of the Polish tongue, the parents teach their child ren in the secrecy of the home, and who knows but Kosciuszko's dream for his fifteen million countrymen may at last be realized?
 The mention of 1772 in Polish his tory turns our attention to the city of Warsaw, which was until that year the metropolis of Poland and which has been the country's capital for many years. The history of the city begins with the transfer of the Diet from Cracow to Warsaw in 1866, then in 1889 1t became the seat of the gov ernment. A few of the more import ant events having Warsaw for back ground are as follows:
 16S$-March S1 Alliahce Of Austria
 and Poland against Turkey, in
 pursuit of which John Sobeskl
 assisted in raising the siege of
 Vienna in September following. 17OS-Warsaw surrendered to Charles
 XII.
 l76S-February 24, Treaty of Warsaw
 between Russia and Poland. 1749-April 10. Russia garrison expell.
 ed with loss of 2OOO killed and
 800 wounded, and the capture of
 36 cannons.
 1794--october Polish defeated by
 Russians at Maclejovice. Mo-
 vember, Suwarrow, Russian gen.
 eraI, destroyed Warsaw.
 lS97-August, Warsaw made a Duchy
 and given to the House of Sax.
 ony.
 1S1S--Duchy overrun by Russians and
 made the residence of the Rus.
 sian Viceroy.
 1SSO-NoVember, Last Polish revolu.
 tion at Warsaw begun.
 1S63-France, England and Austria
 endeavor to influence Russia to
 put an end to the periodic agi.
 tations in Poland by policy of
 conciliation. Meanwhile Prussia
 laid the foundation for the Prus.
 so-Russian Alliance by the con.
 vention of 1863. And the last
 remains of Poland's autonomy
 were extinguished when in 1866
 the country was divided into