Semi-weekly herald., 1914-11-16
have fought back and forth again and

have fought back and forth again and
again. Rifle pits hastily scooped out
and little mounds with crude crosses,
marked the route on both sides of the
track while bandages, scraps of uni
forms, cartridge boxes, Russian caps
and other pieces of equipment, were
scattered on the ground. The road"
rather the trail that answered for
road, running parallel with the rail-
road, was nothing but miry bog.
Illoyo is a typical German border
station. Wide streets, gardens from
which flowers still smile-all the
buildings had been of brick-and even
the ruins show the mark of the char
acteristic German neatness and order
liness. The Russians have destroyed
practically every building in town. 1t
was here that Lieutenant Skopenick
typical frontier officer such as
have known in Arizona and New Mex
leo, held an entire regime mt of Rus.
sian cavalry in check for four day:
from August 1 to A, with only 81
border guards.
We visited his house. The Rus
SLAMS had not burned it down but hat
demolished every piece of furniture
in it, even the iron stove had beei
hammered into pieces, the mattresse
ripped open, the crockery broken an
the house befouled from garret t
cellar in an unprintable manner. Fror
the railroad station on the Russia
side of Mlawa proper, little owe
a mile distant, we walked. The roa
was shaded with rows of beautifu
trees but the road itself was bog
A deluge Of rain was falling and W
probably saw Russian roads and
Russian town under anything but aus
picious condition.
In contrast to the German side {
the line, the buildings were of WOO
dirty and dilapidated. No flower
. smiled from little balconies as the
did even on the ruins in Illovo. Man
of them reminded me of the ran
shackle affairs that many negroes liz
, in our southern states The mark,
hall-of brick and stone-and tw
churches were the only respectful
looking buildings in town. The Ru
SLAMS razed Illovo, the German tow
to the ground. The Germans hadn
, touched the Russian town. A Germa
shell had brought down the tower {
the market hall and two or three otl
, err buildings showed the marks {
: shot and shell. Aside from these I
damage had been done.
The greater part of the populate
had fled with the Russian troops. II
! Jews and some of the very poore.
remained-oieture of misery. u
kempt, unsh,rn, ragged and dirt,
they stood about and looked as amb
tious as the people afflicted with tt
"hool1worm" disease l have seen
the southern states. Many of thel
4 had the dropping blood-red eyelids {
: the fearful eye disease "Trachoma
An old rabbi with white bean
/ and finely chiseled intelligent fac
= expressed his pleasure that the Ge,
mans were in town. MAY God gi,
that they remain" he remarked. Al
5 other aged jew said Zach Gott, if tt
L war was only over. Business is S
: bad"
, Major Won Reid Riedlinger, con
: mandant at Mlawa, rode up. He sal
/, that the Russians were showing gre;
= activity again all along the lin
I, "rhey nearly got my two batterit
yesterday" he laughingly remarke
D as he described the hard work of IL
1 Germans to extricate themselves fro
/ q bad position due to the unexpectt
:. arrival Of strong Russian force.
! Russian scout was brought in, cal
= tured just outside of town. He was