The Washington herald., 1915-05-09

| are railroads. if a German army took
Moscow and a German fleet commanded
| Petrograd there would h." no difficulty
in the mattSr OF supplies Nevertheless
| the Car. retiring to the remote interior,
could adopt the resolution announced by
Alexander I in 1872 when he said, 81
would sooner let my beard grow to my
| waist and live on potatoes in Siberia
than permit any negotiation with Ma
poleon while an armed Frenchman re-
| mains on the soil of Russia
Russia offers the invader apparently
the most inviting field in Europe. Ma
ture threw up no fortifcations at her
frontier. England sits secure within her
wide and tempestuous moat. The Pyre-
nees. the Alps and the Rhine have saved
France time and again. The Car, $
western boundary, on the other hand.
is but line on the map.
The gates Of Russia are wide to those
but-"narrow to those who go out" That
saying ought to be inscribed on the
pedestal of a monument which stands
before the Hotel de Vile at Kovno. on
the Niemen, where this grim tale is
carved:
Surprised in 1872 by an Army of
10000 Men.
Only 10000 Repassed Her Frontier.
Russia's Dislike of Foreign War.
There is an enormous. inert power Of
resistance in Russia. The people. men
and officers alike. will fight like demons
on their own soil and burn their affairs
and their homes rather than let them
Then indeed life is but a copcck."
With every step beyond the national
frontier the ardor OF the soldier slack
ems. He marches and battles In allen
lands but only because "prekazano"-it
is ordered. He will not run away. for he
has not the requisite initiative even for
that Frederick the Great blazed at
H.
quit in despair and for fear of exhaust
ing his ammunition. They no longer
returned his fire. but they neither fed
nor surrendered. because unfortunately
and there was no one left to tell them
what to do. In his East Prussian cam
paign Napoleon was exasperated by
them. IT not only have to kill them"
he exclaimed. but have to knock
When Peter tho Great had led his Rus
slams out of Holy Russia he found he
could not fire their zeal to fight for a
Manchuria was TO the soldiers of Kuro-
patkin in the late Russo-Japanese war
Indeed. the Russian forces that have
confronted the Germans in the present
votion for the defense of Poland that
would be aroused il they were defend
ing the banks of the Dneiper.
Because of the sodden indifference of
MS SrOops' feter idu 10 SURRENDER inc
Sea of Azof to the Turks after he had
captured it and he had to fog his SOL
diers into battle for twenty years before
he could make them drive the Swedes
beyond the Baltic. Charles XII over
whelmed him at Narva in 100. although
the Russians in that battle outnumbered
the Swedes ten to one.
The young Swedish King was only dis
gusted with his easy triumph. which
brought him many more prisoners than
he could feed. Parading the captives be-
cut of the Oriental skirts that Russian
soldiers still wore. Then leaving them
to hold up the scissored garments about
their waists to conceal their nakedness.
he contemptuously sent them home,
telling them that they were only fit to
raise cabbages.
Peter, however. took his disgraceful
defeat -phtlosophically, remarking that
the Swedes would only teach me how to
victory. he cried out. GLORY to God. My
Russians now can whip the Swedes when
We are only four to one. By and by they
will be able to fight on even terms
Because of her native reluctance to
wage foreign wars, Russa's allies often
have found her a doubtful and incon-
slant partner. She abandoned Marie
Theresa and in the midst of the Silesian
war marched her army over to the side
sake him in turn for a neutral position.
She suddenly dropped out of the coali-
ton against revolutionary France in
1900. when her Car. Paul I, became
sniitten with the charms of Napoleon
and entered into an alliance with him
against Austria and England.
Alexander I pledged himself over the