Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-12-01
BY WILLIAM G. SHEPARD
United Press correepondent.

PRZEMYSL, Oct 20 (By mall to
New York. Passed by the War
Press Bureau) This is my diary Of
yesterday, which l spent on the Aus
trian firing line, twelve miles from
here:
6;45 a. m.-Under the escort OF Col
onel John and Captain Miakitch we
start for the front. We include John
Quincy Adams, the great American
painter; Robert Dunn, of the New
York Evening Post, who has just ar
rived, and myself. We bundle into
one OF the typical springless basket
bodied Galician wagons.
$3.50 a. m.--We are on the main
road leading from the great fortifica-
ton of Przemyl to the hills, where
the artillery firing is heaviest. At
$40 o'clock we pass the cholera hos
pital and five minutes later we pass
through tho gate of the inner FORTH
fications. The road is covered with
wagons. Two tightly packed lines of
them are going in our direction. An
other line on the left side Is going to-
ward Przemyl with sick and wound
ed. The steam from thousands of
sweating horses rises like a thin mist
along the trail. The sight is so
wonderful that even the wounded
men keep their eyes on 1t. The sick
men, some with the green faces and
loose, opened mouths of cholera VIC
tins, hang their heads. half dead
7;15-On both sides of the road on
ploughed farm land huge bodies of
recruits are training. They have
stamped the wet earth into a black,
smooth, shining field that glitters
like jet.
7:S0--Among the thousands of
sights we catch a glimpse of a pig
riding on a seat like a soldier. He
has been tied there to keep him from
running away from dinner, though
1t will be someone else's meal, not
his own.
7:35-We pass the outer line of fort
ifications. The trenches are lined
and fioored with willow or straw mat
ting. AS far as our eyes can reach
to our right and left stretch small
forests" of posts hitching posts
high, with barbed wire hung and
tangled between them.
Rought Riding.
9:10--Our wagon is springless. Now
l know why all the wounded men
have seen in the carts have such
strained faces.
9:35-The road dips into a valley
On both sides stretches an immense
camp of tents and covered wagons.
The smoke of thousands of fires
hangs over 1t all. Mud, men, flags,
horses wagons, piles of bread, har-
ness. rifles, form a weird and inde-
scribable picture that covers hun
dreds of acres in the valley. This Is
a reserve camp.
9:45-We make a trip on foot
through the damp. Hello, there. you
Americana" I hear a man call from
a covered prairie schooner" He
shows me q letter he has just writ
ten. 1t is addressed to Helen o.
Reese, 1900 Calvert street, Baltimore
Your wife?" 1 asked. mo, but 1
wish she would be-" he replied. He
is Lieutenant Carl Hoffman, of the
Eleventh Army Corps. and so hand
some and big that I'll recommend
him as a husband to any unmarried
girl.
9:50-A spherical balloon, dirigible
balloon and two aeroplanes are soar
ing or darting about above the hills
10000 soldier is leaning against
the wall at the gateway of a con-
vent, but the convent Is only a heap
of broken brick and stone. The Aus
TRAN soldiers have RACED it because
1t INSTRUCTED the view from the forts.
The soldier has only to go forward
and he evidently considers the task
bore.
10:20-We cross a narrow gauge
railroad track laid over ploughed
farms. 1t is an artillery railroad.
The cars are very small, but horses
pull them more rapidly than wag-
ons. There Is a string of cars across
the horizon. They are feeding the
artillery in the hills two miles away
with shrapnel shells. The railroad
to Sanok runs through this farm and
when we pass the depot of Herman
owice we see wounded and sick men
lying all about the platform. They
are waiting for trains which will
carry them back to the base hos
pitfalls.
10:S0-The sound of firing is inces-
santana huge in volume. The Aus
trian batteries fire one gun at time.
The Russians are firing salvos. zone,
two. three. four, five, SIX go the
Austrian howitzers. "Br-r-r-r" go
the Russian pieces, all firing at one
time BefoYe us are hills covering
miles of territory; from hill top to
hill top and from valley to valley
the battle is raging.
The Artist Stumped.
''How can a man paint a battle
like this?" asks Adams who has just
finished a picture of the emperor of
Austro- Hungary in seven sittings,
and who usually isn't frightened by
important assignments.
10:35--Many wounded have passed
us in wagons "I'll never paint war
pictures again of men going into bat
tie singing and waving their swords"
said Adams. THAT man with the
green twisted face on that wagon,
suffering from cholera, is more tre-
mendous picture of war than all the
exploding cannon I can paint" In
the midst of all the life and activity
and movement the man was dying
before our eyes, There was no one
to care for him. His wagon was held
in the endless stream and 1t must
continue whether 1t carried only a
sick man, or dying man, or a poi
sonous green corpse.
10;40-Three small deer run across
the road ahead of us. There are
thousands of soldiers hereabouts, all
with rifles. Good meat is not any
too common, but the laws against
poaching are imbued in the peasantry
of Europe and these deer on the bat
tlefieid are probably the safest of all
living things. Battles have been
waged on this ground for weeks, and
thousands of men and horses have
been killed; the hungry Russians
have once held this ground, but hero
are the three baby deer safe and
sound,
l1:00-we come to a shallow creek.
In tents on a hillock beside the road
are the corps commander and his
staff A network of field telephone
wires, the nerves of the army,
Maact Msyz1aN