Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1914-12-16
ONE MILE OF TELEPHONE
COST 10000 MEN AND LOST
RUSSIA PORT ARTHUR
From the Washington Star

uOS0uN OUu ouIuuuOG0
From the Washington Star.
There are many individual miles Of
city built telephone line that have cost
Veil up in the hundreds of thousands
of dollars remarked an officer OF the
United States army who saw much OF
the war between Russia and Japan q
few years ago. but the mile Of tele-
phone wire that cost. beyond all COM
p%ar!son. more money and lives than
any other line eve built was erected
during the siege OF Port Arthur in 1905.
For weeks and months the Japs had
been eating away at the defenses of
success. The hills around the town
and harbor seemed to have been fash
Toned by nature for defense. The Japs.
though they had brought up their great
IL and IA inch siege guns. were able
to make but slight impression upon the
or the Russian fleet that lay safe with
In the inner harbor. The trouble was
that. though the great guns-'Osaka
babies they called them, after the lame
of the town where they We're manufac-
t~ured-could easily carry from their
positions into Port Arthur and the
harbor. there was intervening Il great
range of hills from 500 to 600 feet in
height and crowned with the most
powerful Qualifications in the world to
that date. ftence, tIe guns could not
get a slight OF their targets.
command was sent from Toxic to
destroy the Russian ba%ttleships lying
in the inner harbor. and command from
Toxic meant obedience or death. The
Japanese generals put their heads to-
gether and at length conceived a dar-
ing 81 plan: t,a vast ., tho nrot.ou
! range of hills there was an isolated
peak Know from h exact measure
ment of it's height. as '2O3 Meter HIM.
BY observing the Japs learned that
from the summit OF the hill the whole
! town and inner harbor OF Port Arthur
could be plainly seen.
The hill. however. was commanded
by fully half the forts along the main
line of the Russian Notifications To
seize and fortify the position was.
had another plan. They brought up q
powerful attacking force n launched
1t against the Russians holding the hill.
Day after day they pushed their trench
es up the hill. full in the deadly fire OF
the Russian forts. Thousands of them
We're killed. but steadily they drove
their lines forward and upward. Three
times he Russians, ~assaulting them
in force, drove them from their trench
es. and three times the Japs, rallying
under reinforcements, retook the works
and forged along up the hill.
IOL SIiSG MCGhS NllC WIZ vi OAAs
1t was estimated that more than 10000
men We're killed and wounded in the
fighting along the last mile to the
summit of that hill. But at last their
efforts were crowned with success. A
small party of Japs reached the top
and, from their point of vantage be
hind protecting crags locke %squarely
down upon the town and harbor OF
the doomed town.
''Then. to the Russians surprise, the
Japs made no attempt to fortify the
hilltop. The gunners at the forts that
thanked it 20 Right n left looked In
vain for the forces that were to march
up there and offer themselves as u
target as they threw up their in
trenclhments. and they anticipated a
carnival of slaughter when the at
tempt to fortify would be made. But
there came no army to hold it; there
came not Eel a regiment. though all
about, the base of the hill the Japs
erected powerful works that held the
Russians back from n attempt to re-
take the hill by assault. Indeed. for
all the Russians could see. the taking
of the hill was a barren victory.
But hidden in the crags and cliffs
of the summit, there were two Japs
unseen by Russian eyes They were
not armed. unless n considers a tele-
scope and a telephone as weapons, for
these were the only implements the
| hidden one had.
Suddenly, the Osaka babies COM
menced to open fire upon the town and
harbor, and the Russians smiled, for
experience had shown them now inn
possible it was for the shells to strike
their unseen targets. But. to their as
constituent. after a shell or two. one
lit squarely upon the main building in
Port Arthur and shortly after one
plunged through the deck of a battle
ship and sunk her like a stone.
I'm a short time the town was
wrecked and the fleet. with half of it's
ships sunk or disabled, mad to put out
to sea.
For. from the telephone in the hand
of the Jap hidden on the summit of 203
Meter hill there ran a wire to the bat
babies the whole thing became as
simple as a kindergarten problem. The
la with the telescope observed where
the shells from the babies struck: he
reported it to the man with the tele-
phone, who, in turn. telephone it to the
gunners of the babies They modified
their fire under these directions and
placed their great shells as accurately
as though they were firing Loint-blanl1
at a target.
"It was the beginning of the end Of
Port Arthur. that mile of telephone line
running up the flank of 203 Meter hill.
1t was but a single wire mounted on
poles so small that they were invisible
a quarter miles distant. but 1t cost TO-
900 men and several millions of dollars
in ammunition and other war cost to
condemn the right of way"
One Girl That Wanted a Man.