Semi-weekly herald., 1914-12-28

regular trips between this little town
and headquarters. And, on the road.
you often see a train of four or five
small wagons carrying beer which
will be consumed, in large part, by
the newspaper men. The correspond
ents pay for their beer but their food
is furnished them free. In this great
room where l ate my hot, belated
supper the correspondents do great
deal of their writing and here the CEN
sors, who are appointed to deal in
various languages, talk over the copy
of the journalists, read out news at
mealtime and give instructions as to
postal and telegraph arrangements.
An auto was waiting for me and.I (
was whisked to a whitewashed house
on the outskirts of the town where
a room had been reserved for me-
The family was Polish. All about the
walls of the little room were pictures
of the Christ and the Virgin Mary.
1t was the parlor, and three clocks
were ticking away merrily. | have
been in scores of such houses in AM
erica. remembered that one time
in a Massachusetts town, during a
strike, had slept for four nights
in just such Polish home waiting
for the deputy sheriff to come and
put the family out into the street but
the sheriff had not come and 7 had
missed my story. There had been. two
clocks in my room in that house ia
America. Poles seem to run clocks.
1 locked two of the clocks IN my
valise to muffle them and went to
bed. 1t looked to me just as was
dropping off into slumber as if | had
been pocketed by the Austro-Hungar-
ian war department Here l was in
small town, hundred miles fronf>
the front and no way to get there ex-,
cept by army trains and the Polish
woman rap st.ny door to tell me
it was Z o,-ss- the morning. At
breakfast timeln the big room |
found that my status was absolutely
military. / received instructions that
l was to go to the headquarters town
at 8 o'clock. took the long ride
over the hills in a coach in wintery
sunshine. / met Colonel Won Hoen,
who has entire charge of all the field
forces of correspondents and he had
rocc raoJvy f0r v,,a II, II
is known as 'legitimation." 1t bears
my photograph and my autograph and
careful description of my personalt
appearance.
Tomorrow" Col Hoen told me,
"you are to be started for the front, J
but first you will be received by Gen-j
eral Count Won Hertzendorf, the chief
of staff"
This was far more than an Ameri-l
man or any other correspondent could
have expected in the way of Aus
trian courtesy. The Archduke Fred-)
erich is the commander-in-chief of
the entire Austro-Hungariapfiis,yl
and General Won Hertzendot As next
in command as chief Of staff3a The
next day Col Won Hoen escorte& sew
eral correspondents, includines ,seh
to tha, I'd headquarters and N4&eissll
shdnts % room which was entered
shortly by a grey-haired, quiet APP
pearing gentleman of slender stature
who greeted US with as much ease as
If the occasion were a reception in |
stead Of an incident in the worle
supreme war. He spoke to a German
correspondent in German, to an Ital-I |
ian in Italian, to a Swiss in Frenc,
and l do not know how many othe
tongues he commands. There W
not even crepe on his arms for IT,.
son who was recently killed in batt
Another of his sons had Just beef
wounded. He asked me about u.
country and its feelings toward All
tria and l told him that what Il
United States wanted was the trut9
We want you to have the trut
he replied. Then he told us-tS
were six of us-that we must be
careful Of our health when we we
to the front and carefully regard
the regulations and precautions thu
the doctors would impose on US. Thei
he went back to his maps and his dut
ties of directing millions of men on
his million mile chess board and vi
went back over the hills torS sack up,I