Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-12-02
BY WILLIAM G. sHEPARD
United Press Correspondent.


PRZEMYSL, Austria, Oct 20 (By
mail to New York: passed By censor)
Napoleon never fought like the Aus
TRANS and Russians are fighting on
this huge battle line. He didn't have
the telephone. and guns that would
carry six miles; he knew nothing. But
for 200 miles to the left Of lis. 400 miles
to the right this same sort of battle
is 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 awakened, and
then you'll have the sort of battle that
Napoleon knew about and fought
only a "battlet" in this twentieth CEN
tury.
There is a man sitting loo miles
away behind us who knows every mo-
ment 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
I sat in the office of this man who
knows everything. Count Won Hoet-
zendorf, and, as | talked with him,
tried to put myself in his place-and
failed.
Out here on the firing line / can
understand more fully than I could
when l talked with him what tre-
mendous duties rest on his shoulders
and behind Won Hoetzendorf is the
Archduke Frederick who says: "Do
this" or do that" Hundreds of
thousands of men are obeying orders
at this moment, just as these men at
the battery are not knowing results,
but blindly confident In their faith in
the archduSe- commander and Won
Hoetzendorf
LOAD. shoot.' the Order
1:15 p. m.--But to get back to our
shooting. The man in the hole be-
gins to talk through the telephone
again. He yells out new numbers
Somewhere hidden out there among
the hills several miles away is an
Austrian officer who can see where
the first shell struck. Evidently the
range was not what he. wanted and
he is telephoning from his hiding
place new range and direction.
Gun No. 2 is shifted and retiited.
Within a minute its shells go, along
its shrieking way. We wait for more
telephone orders. They come imme-
diately. The range was perfect.
Somewhere those shells are doing
deadly work. There must be more
of them. With a giant "burring'' OF
cTar toll lob L.
shells go on their way. And then
the next order tells us to turn the
guns in quite another direction and
elevation. There is evidently other
work to be done in other place
among the hills, but we don't know
what it lis. All these men and boys
load and shoot, load, shot," listen
to the sf1rieking shells and wonder
what has happened.
1:25-On the other side of the road.
half a mile away is a second battery.
We go over there. On the way we
find two boys digging hole in the
field. There are two dead men IN
that house, of cholera" they say,
"and this is their grave" They have
q 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 in
terested as l photograph them, as
boys might have done.
2:05 p. m.--The second battery is
working like the first. They are the
same size howitzers. Early this
morning, before daylight, a Russian
shrapnel almost found" them. They
show us the hole in the earth. 1t Is
four feet deep and twelve feet in
diameter For many feet around the
ground is plowed up by skipping
pieces of flying metal.
Reaches Cholera Hospital.
2:10-We come to a cholera hospital
in the road. 1t is an old farm house.
The scene in the yard is indescribable.
have my pencil and paper in hand
but I don't know what to write. All
about the yard, lying on straw under
the trees, through which the sunshine
filters, are inanimate men. sick OF
cholera. Here is a soldier priest wear
ing army shoes, a red cross band on
his arm, and a heavy overcoat. He
wears a gold cloth apron over his
coat. A soldier rises weakly from the
straw to his knees He folds his
hands before him, and the army priest
bends over him. This is absolution
for the dying that this priest is grant
ing. This muttertng soldier. who is
still SIrOnB enough u hHc0 upI u III
and to cross himself. probably will be
dead by night, surely by morning
And, after the priest goes, the soldier
falls back weakly on the straw, pulls
a dirty blue handkerchief from his
pocket and sobs out his misery. But
the Asiatic cholera will have its way
with him before many hours. The
priest goes to another man and
arouses him. This man seems strong
er than the first. He gets to his feet
and falls on his knees and raises his
face expectantly and hopefully to the
churchman and takes his absolution
without sign of weakness.
But the Red Cross doctors know
when to call the priest. -Four hours
usually see the finish of the Asiatic
cholera victim and the priest can be
called none too soon after the first
unfailing symptoms is discovered.
This symptom is like death sentence
and these men lying under the trees in
the sunshine, their faces greenish in
hue, their eyes closed, are dying, even
though some of them have strength
enough left to kneel upright as the
priest blesses them.