The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-24
Thousands Homeless and Many Buildings Are Laid to Ruins by the Slavic Invaders
ASSOCIATED PRESS
 CORRESPONDENT
 TELLS OF DAMAGE
100000 Refugees Flee as the Russians Approach. Property Damage Will Go Into Millions

koenigsburg. East Prussia. April $. Correspondence of the Associated Press.b b--rhousands of persons home less, thousands of buildings burned to the ground and hundreds of thousands if nor millions Of dollars worth of dnn- age done-such is the toll of the Rus sian invasion of East Prussia. which cuimfnated recently in a raid on the iittie city of MemeI In the northern- most corner of the province.
 Hard on the heels of the most recent invaders an Associated Press correspon- dent recently visited East Prussia, or that part of it which at one time or other had been held by the Russians
 From the German Russian border. which is 10 miles to the northward of Memel. to Bialla, far to the south and for miles inward from the curving boundary line, there now lies in place of a one time prosperous agricultural section. an all most desolate waste, punetured here and there with half-ruined communities.
 Less than 72 hours after the Russians had wrecked the town of Meme and only to leave it-and I'll of their number dead when German achievements ar rived the Associated Press correspondent reached the isolated community, to find t veritable city of fear
 Thousands of Fugitiyes
 Along every road within miles of Memel hVndreus or wagons filled with fugitiVes were hurryine with what they had been able to save from their homes Their numbers were added to the thousands who earlier had fled in similar fashion. and now are quartered all over Germany
 Along 2 lipe sof l50 miles as the. crow lilies alldrfo' Distance Varying fiusrt fTNe to ob miles illwa I'd from the Russian uor- der, there now remains only a succession of ruins The taaT Prussian authorities estimate the number of fugitives driven out at about 300,000, the number of horses talset at 10000, the number of cattle at loo.oO0 The extent of the property dam age, however, is impossible even to guess That IL will run into the millions is al- together likely.
 These same authorities appear to have proceeded with conservatism Wild tales of atrocities have been discounted from first to last, and in many cases have proved to be the products of excited im- agination. Careful investigation never- theless has established beyond much doubt, according to German statements, that thousands of women and children have been carried off to Russia and that civilians have been killed and outraged.
 Bleak eastern East Prussia today pre- sents, not the appearance of Belgium with it's shel-ruined towns. but a suc- cession of devastated towns, all but de- void of inhabitants. The extent of the danage varies only In degree-from Schirwindt, the City of the Dead, to Mem ell the City of Fear
 Ringed With BatIefields
 The tour of East Prussia began at lnsterburg which has felt the Russian in vason virtually not at all. and extended to Gumbinnen, which is ringed about with hattlefields. The town has suffered but negligibly in comparison with those near CT the border.
 Through a waste of partly ruined vil- lages the way led to 1isit. once held by the Russians under Grand Duke Nicholas. Even the most bitter anti-Russian. how ever. admits that the troops which first came Were soldiers, not marauders.
 The invasion of Memel had in a meas ure cast it's shadow before, until even in Tilsit the effects were felt Hundreds of wagons poured into the city. The oc- cupants traveled blindly. actuated by a terrible fear of the Russians and the one desire to save themselves.
 Though nominally city, Memel really is a large town, with the one main street common to towns everywhere That street bore the traces of the Russian in- yasi6n, for every store window was. smashed in.
 The place was filled with German troops. The two hotels were full of of ficers and the streets swarmed with both soldiers and sailors, for in the harbor lay cruisers and torpedo boats sent hastily to Memel to Lombard the Russians as they retreated
 whole army corps, however. would not have served to calm the town com pletely. Its inhabitants suddenly had been awakened to what the war really meant. Its mayor lay in the hospital desperately ill from a bayonet wound. Between 800 and 800 of the population had been carried off by the retreating forces. shops were wrecked and pil- laged
 The scenes of destruction on the way to Memel had seemed bad enough. but they could not be placed in the same category with conditions north and east of the city. The Russians had moved in two columns. driving the landstrum troops before them and little was left behind.
 The way led due north to Nimmersa,i. almost on the Baltic, only few hundred yards from the German Russian border 
 few days before. The force had included according to all accounts 300 Cossacks, followed by civilians who completed the work of wreckage.
 Half hundred Russian prisoners were concluded the work of burying their 171 dead fellows when the Associated Press correspondent left Memel. The route led back to Tilsit. A noncommissioned artil- Jery officer, ploddng along toward the hospital in Tilsit. asked permission to ride and told the tale of the previous days battle. His company, called in an emergency to act as infantry and help defend position near the border had been badly broken up by what he de- scribed as villaf6ous machine gun fire.
 Can Certainly Shoot
 These Russians certainly can shoot" he declared. I've put in a good many years as an artiIleryman and don't mind artillery fire. Neither is infantry fire