The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1914-12-02
BY WILLIAM c. SHEPHERD.

Przemysl, Austria, Oct. 29.-(B.
mail to New York; Passed by Censor
Napoleon never fought like the Aus
trians and Russians are fighting oI
this huge battle line He didn't have
the telephone, and of guns that woulC
carry six miles he knew nothing. Blu
for two hundred miles to the left o.
us this afternoon and for 200 miles Il
the right, this same sort of battle ii
going on. Here and there along the
front today the Russian infantry and
the Austrian infantry will come into
| clashes as one or the other tries to
reach battery of the enemy that
seems to have been weakened, and
then you'll have the sort of battle that
| Napoleon knew about and fought
only battle" in this twentieth cen
| tury There is a man sitting $50
miles away behind us who knows
every moment Of the time just what
is going on along the whole vast line
just as the battery commandant with
whom we were talking here knows all
that is going on at the edge of his six
gun fan AS / look at our own battery
here and think of how little these men
know of what they are doing. my MIND
goes back to a week ago when ! sat In
the office OF this man who knows
everything, Count Won Hoetzendorf,
and as talked with him tried to put
myself in his place-and failed.
1:15 D. m.-But to get back to our
shooting. The man in the hole begins
to talk through the telephone again.
He yells out new numbers. Some
where, hidden out there among the
hills several miles away, is an Aus
trian officer who can see where the
first shells struck Evidently the
range was not what he wanted and
he is phoning from his hiding place
a new range and direction. Gun No. 2
is shifted and retilted. Within min
ute its shell goes along its shrieking
way. We wait for more phone orders.
They come Immediately. The range
was perfect. Somewhere these shells
are doing deadly work. There must
be more Of them. With giant bur
ring" Of explosions, shrieks and
swishes. six shells go on their way
And then the next order tells us to
turn the guns in quite another direc-
tion and elevation. There is evidently
other work to be done in other places
among the hills, but we don't know
what It is. All these men do is load,
shoot, load shoot listen to the shrek
ing shells and wonder what has hap
pened.
1:25 D. m-On the other side of the
road. half a mile away, is a second
battery. We 80 over there. On the
way we find two boys digging hole
in field.
"There are two men dead in that
house of cholera" they say, "and this
is their grave They have a wooden
cross, made roughly of two sticks, on
the ground beside the hole. These
two boys seem centuries old; they do
not smile, or even appear interested
as photograph them, as boys might
have done.
2,05 n. m.-The second battery is
working like the first They are the
same size howitzers. Early this morn
ing. before daylight, Russian shrap-
mel almost found them. They show
us the hole in the earth 1t is four
feet deep and twelve feet in diamter.
For many feet around, the ground Is
pIoughed up by skipping pieces OF fly-
ing metal.
2:1O u. m.-We come to cholera
hospital along the road. It is an ola
farm house. The scene in the yard is
indescrfbable. | have my pencil ana
paper in hand, but don't know what
To write. All about the yard, lying on
straw under the trees, through which
the sunshine filters, are inanlmate
men. sick of cholera, Here is SOL
dier priest, wearing army shoes, a
Red Cross band on his arm ana a
heavy overcoat.
He wears gold cloth apron over
his chest. A soldier rises weakly from
tha straw to his knees. He folds ms
hands before him and the army priest
bends over him. This is absolution
for the dying that this priest is grant
ing This muttering soldier who is
still strong enough to kneel upright
and to cross himself, probably VIII Dc
dead by night, surely by morning. anu
after the priest goes, the soldier rams
back weakly on the straw, pulls
dirty blue handkerchief from Ms
nocket and sobs out his misery bu
the Asiatic cholera will have its way
with him before many hours. ln'
priest goes to another man an'
arouses him. This man seems strong
e..