Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1915-12-15

British bluejacket orderly as the two
admirals, Russian and British, came
out.
Prisoners Look Comfortable.
Ahead. down the bank, appeared
great cluster Of masts. That was the
SOlombola suburb, the lower docks of
Archangel. | reached it by wooden
causeway bridging a broad creek. the
banks Of which are occupied by tim
Der yards. Women were loading log
barges. On the opposite bank, half
mile away, I saw gray figures NOV
ing. Austrian prisoners or German?
came closer. Oh, Austrians. Aus
trians clean and very we'll clad in
their warm, scarcely soiled uniforms
and greatcoats. They were on gen.
eral dock laboring jobs, mostly in
great field of bales of American cotton,
surrounded on all sides. except the
river, by an eight-foot timber palisade,
with sharpened tops. They looked
we'll fed and cheerful. might add
here that whatever adverse criticisms
may justly be made of the Russians,
they treat their prisoners as gentle
men. The Russian is a pretty good
fellow, from the human point of view
"a natural born democrat and
sportsman.
There were a lot of guards about in
Solombola, civilian armed civilian I'M
armed and Russian soldiers. Unfamil-
lar passers-by are eyed suspiciously
At the dockyard entrance holes in the
palisade stood civilian guards with
belt loaded rifles slung across their
backs Above the gates were holy
ikons. gilded pictures of saints, with
two peculiar tippets of fur hanging
from them
There was an intensely interesting
flow of traffic along this road to the
Solombola docks, medley of races,
a library of odd human documents.
Through the deep black mud passed
wagons driven by slant-eyed Samoy-
eds, an Eskimolike tribe of the Rus
sian arctic littoral, and skull-capped
Mohammedan Tartars from the
parched deserts of Turkestan. And
there were carts driven by hairy Rus
sian moujiks of the north, with huge
reddish boards; and carts driven by
clean-shaven dapper little Austrian
prisoners, each with a civilian guard
in tow. Cossack soldiers were on
scampering ponies and Malo-Russian
soldiers plodded afoot British jack
CT n
fine, free roll and men of the imperial
Russian navy walked in quick, short
steps.
Sees TWO French Soldiers.
Just as | was passing the changing
foundry two French soldiers appeared
among the passers-by, real French
poilus in their long blue greatcoats
and baggy red breaches. What they
were doing and whether or not they
were fOrerunners of a big landing like
that of the Belgians | do not know.
In the main street of Archangel one
afternoon | saw what | thought was
group of British army officers. | found
they were Belgians in the new smart
khaki uniform, closely copied from
the British. few Belgian soldiers
appeared on the streets the following
day, to the intense interest of the ma
tives, many of whom took them for a
new brand Of Austrian.
Next morning Archangel was showed
under with Belgian soldiers, mainly
gunners and flying men and men well
versed in running armored automo-
biles and perambulating forts. Little
men, hardly bigger than Japanese. en-
veloped in blue greatcoats; the gun
ners with crossed cannon in red braid
on their arms. Polite little men, too.
Meeting on the step. they hold a shop
door open for a woman 30 enter first,
with a bow. and "S'il vous plat,
madame"
1t was difficult to get a shave in
Archangel that day, though there are
plenty of barber shops for the use of
sailors. Rows of Belgian soldiers oc-
cupied the chairs and benches in the
hinterland. 1t was next to impossible
to get stamps at the post Office be-
cause of the Belgians there.
In a group of Belgian officers in the
Offitzerov restaurant was priest,
also in militant khaki. He was
dressed like an officer. except for his
fasten-b behind clerical collar and red.
black and gold cross pinned to his
breast. The gold tassel dangling from
the front of the Belgian officers cap,
By the way. is a cause of much gig
Cling to the Russian maidens.
For three days the Belgians re
manned Then, as mysteriously al
they had appeared. they faded away
toward the south.