New-York tribune., 1915-03-24

, troubles, as nearly rs l COuiu NEuIe u
! from numerous haphazard statements
| is that the Germans were compelled to
withdraw from the neighborhood about
the last of October. In December they
made another drive toward il, and on
/ the 21st and 22d Of that month the
Russians were beaten back from Lo-
wicZ.
When made my first trip TO the town
the Germans had held it in .undis-
/ turbed occupation for about n week,
and II was there that ! spent my New
| Years Eve In room without pane
Of glass in il and with a window cur
/ tain for a coverlid
! Far from resenting the lack OF glass,
! ! was profoundly grateful for the win
dow curtain. Two nights later ] came
into possession of feather bed and
was happier than the man who had
! captured Lowicz.
Three shots from the Austrian 80
oentimetre guns had pat the final
touch of devastation on Lowicz. All
three struck in the principal square.
One tore away the roof OF the Hotel
Polski. another ripped out three of the
four stories of business block 800
feet away, and the third let the sun
shine into the dim abbey church on
i the opposite side of the square.
/ IL is in this abbey church that hun
/ dreds of Russian prisoners are CON
( fined. In the daytime all except the
| few wounded prisoners are taken out
TO work on the roads.
/ In the nighttime. as you pass the
4 walls which cncircle the church and
which have been loopholed for infantry
! fire. you can hear the Russians chop
I ping up the cofIins which they have
! dragged out Of ancient tombs for ire
f wood
Coupled with the moaning Of an in
Cipient blizzard that sound is ono Of
T the least cXhilarating ! have heard
since the time certain small boy used
: TO pass the cemetery in Jackson. Mich.
and heard the winter wind moaning IN
the pine trees.
Soldiers Rcglaze Houses.
There has not been much snow along
the Southeriy points of the western
/ frontier Of Russia this season, but dur
ing my first days at Lowicz II was be-
ginning to snow heavily, and now the
soldiers are reglazing the shattered
houses with glass brought over from
Germany.
The pleasant tinklc of that business
and the din from improvsed machine
shops where autos are repaired are
backed by the "deep diapason OF the
cannonade" at Bolimow.
Sweating soldiers who speak German
TO reluctant Russian cows are leading
the beasts to slaughter. and the beasts
seem to sense doom, for they are low
ing pitcously.
Chcapjacks. wearing baggy trousers
Of nlack-
selling cigarettes, and postcards TO the
soldiers, and occasionally being ad-
vised TO "go home to your house when
they try to overcharge the soldiers.
The cheapjacks look like clowns out of
circus as to costume, but there is a
not unamiabe craftinsss in their eyes,
and they take the scorn of the soldiers
. quite imperturbably.
: In every square the broad backed
army wagons are drawn up IN hall CIR
clcs. and when. toward nightfal!, their
yellow hoods are shected with snow,
they look like park of ghost wagons.
In some of the churchyards cannon
are parked, extra wheels fastened TO
4 them, and from the windows Of houses,
J ith the first floor on a level with the
I street. column horses that al getting
"A days rest gaze placidly ou- at the
paserby.
A Berlin motor bus that | last saw
! skimming down Leipziger strasse now
is humping through Lowicz full OF doc
! tors and nurses. and French baker s
" gon that has got away OIL It's beat
/ i'm Northern France Is starting Tor the
/ front with a load of soldatenbrod for
the men in the trenches east OF Boil
NOV
8 oh
most eloquent bcggar ever heard is
discoursing tearfully too tearfuily, TO
, be convincing and beside another
church Protestant, think a dead
/ horse lies in pit dug by one OF the
! Austrian shells.
: The shell made pit large enough
for dozen horses. II also broke every
window on that side Of the church.
From beneath the snow the dead AMI
nal sends up fearful stencil.
Warsaw Forty Miles Away.
In fact. Lowicz is as ridiculous as a
county fair and as terrible as be
leaguered city, and suppose II is the
scat Of the most feverish and most
wonderful activity in the world to-day.
Lowicz is an etappe. and that means
that il is a base for the receiving and
dispatching Of men and munitions for
the enormous operations which the Ger
mans are launching IN the direction
of Warsaw, forty miles TO the east.
Indeed, it is considerably less than
forty miles TO the outer line of War
saw defences.
Lowicz stands on the right bank OF
the lazy River Bzura and IS Polish
Russian-Jewish town Of $4,000 inhabl-
tants. 1t commands a dreary plain
and is one of the principal points on
a great highway that leads east by
north TO Warsaw. and that then sweeps
more sharply northeast TO Petrograd.
Sixteen miles TO the southeast is the
town of Skicrniewice. in front OF which
heavy fighting is going on. -lany Ger
man officers are quartereG in the Czar's
hunting lodge, which rises 70 the south
of the Skiernlewice station.
On another road leading southeast
out of Lowicz the Bolimow roads
; one of the most splendid of the sew
eral Russian seats OF Prince Radziwlll.
Ii lies three miles out of the town ana
its chateau is full Of fine paintings
The houses in the outskirts or Lo-
wicz on the northeast have been burned
to the ground. On the northeast you
strike the road leading TO the little
town of ZelazowaW VIOLA, twenty miles
away, where Chopin was born lo4 years
ago. Eighty years after his birth his
townsmen bethought themselves TO set
up an obelsk in memory of him.
The citizens of the larger towns
hereabouts turn an honest penny by
renting to musical pilgrims carriage
and pair that makes the journey 10
ZelaZowa-W Wola for l.j0 or 81. When
YOU see the countryside of Chopin you
cease TO wonder that he was melan-
cholic and wrote funeral marches.
copyright 1915. ny The Chicago Trbune.)