The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-23
A GZZlNPSE US NIZlN4

upon a large quantity of the very acme of Russian delicacy. were greasing their boots with it when an officer and gour- met rescued the caviare from such base use.
 For 15 days the Emperor stayed ar Vitebsk, tearing down houses about his headquarters to give him an open space on which to review his troops, while he appealed to the imperial librarian at Paris for some amusing books as he had moments of leisure not easy to fill here." After losing that precious fortnight and more of the short sum- mer, he left the city by the Duna ana crossed over the Dneiper. the great river of Muscovy. down which Odin of the north, had journeyed to the Black sea and descended upon Constan- tinople.
 In White Russia
 Onward the grand army toiled out of Lithuania into the real Russia, into White Russia" until 1t stood before the many lowered brick wall of sacred Smo- lensk, whose white domes geam in the sun on the nights above the Dneper. There once more the enemy was over taken and when Napoleon learned that the Russian armies were together at Smolensk united for the defense of the city, he clapped his hands and rejoiced, "at last I have them.' But again lie lost a day before closing in upon the elusive foe, and it was noon of the following day when his batteries opened fire. All afternoon the city wall withstood pelt- ing hail of lead, though the wooden houses behind 1t repeatedly caught fire. At the late setting of the northern sun, Smolensk still defied It's assailants who now rested for the night.
 The fires within the walls continued to spread, casting glare upon Napoleons S face as he sat before the door of his tent and gazed at the burning town When the sun rose-hfter a brief August night, it's first rays disclosed the bat tered walls without defender mounted upon them and the city wrapped in si- lence and ,r flames. A young French officer, creeping up to the foot of the wall and not hearing the sound of voice within, scaled 1t and looked out over a deserted city.
 The quarry, run to cover once more. had escaped again, and the inhabitants had fled after the soldiers. Instead of destroying the enemy and capturing a rich city, Napoleon, at the cost of l2Oo0 men, had conquered another desolation as useless as the wilds of Lithuania. Moreover, he had to fight the conflagra- ton to complete even that empty con quest, When that had been subdHed he entered the smoldering. depopulated ruins and flung himself upon bed.
 He was now nearly soo miles from the frontier and still without the decisive battle that he had expected to deliver as soon as he entered the dominions of the Czar. As he had marched deeper and .drener into the vast Russian xastes and farther Into the short Russian summer, to had hooked upon Smolens,x as the goal of his campaign. Arrived there, he had thought to sit down for the win ter in that gateway of old Russia, while his army rested and recuperated for a great campaign in 1913
 But the warehouses of Smolensk were burned or empty. and the invader had to bivouac on the ashes of the city. There were no supplies for the mon and the animals. And hungry army can not stand still in the pressncs of starva- tion.