The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1915-04-30
HOW C0SSACK H0RDES Pill AGED
AClTY IN EAST OF PRUSSIA

ments began to arrive, and the Rus
SLAMS began to leave. A few hours
a trail Of dead bodies from the center
of the little city to Althof-or its
remnants-told the story Of the de-
parture. When the last Russian had
gone and the inhabitants ventured out
of their homes, Ill corpses were pick
ed up and piled together preparatory
to burial in common grave.
This gruesome: work was still in
progress when an Associated Press
correspondent reached Memel:
One Of the first to reach the scene
was Ober-President Won Batocki of
the province of East Prussia, and he
from the mass of rumor and hearsay
began at once to sift out the truth
regarding the invasion. Shortly he
determined that between 500 and 600
persons in the Mcneil part of the
province had been carried off to Rus
STA; that twelve civilians had been
killed and that one woman took poison
when she was attacked by Russian
soldier and that another died from
such an attack. that the second mayor
of the city had been dangerously and
perhaps fatally wounded by bayo-
net stab in the abdomen, and that
sixteen German soldiers had beer
killed in dispelling the Russians.
The Associated Press correspondent
was able to retrace the route taken ny
the Russians as they advanced on Me.
mel from the nearby border, to the
north and to the east, and to see q
panorama of desolation such as now
is common in East Prussia, and no.
where else in Europe. Belgium is
down and devastated.
The route led up along the Baltic
coast to the remains Of the little vii
lage Of Nimmersau-a typical town
the principal in which had been thu
inn. 1t had been the objective of tn
Russians as they swept over the Dor
der from Polangen. They had stay
ed long enough to all but wipe it Of,
the map.
>; The few inhabitants of the village
who had mustered up courage to stay
or who had returned, told pitiful tales
One old man, with one ragged sui
of clothing, a battered hat and broke,
} umbrella as his sole remaining pos
: sessions, had left Nimmersau with hi
two young sons when the Russians
approached, leaving his wife and fiv
} young daughters behind.
Il He came back to find parts of tn,
!. walls of his home still standing, tn
interior a smoking ruin, and his wifi
and children gone. The tears role,
slowly down his cheeks and froze i,
the bitter cold as he told the story.
Not far from this scene of devas
tation was another, this time the re
. mains Of what had been a more pre-
: tentious inn with the euphonious blu
: hooking name of "Kurhaus Nimmer
; saat"-(Never satisfied). The smok
still eddied through the ruins of tn
walls, and in what had been an Ital
| ian garden, now mess Of wrecke'
marble tables, there stared out tn
sign "Please do not pick the flowers.
Again to the southwark. then to tn
, eastward and finally back to Meme
, the route led, with the picture Away
the same, the devastation varying onl,
? in degree. Yet not one house an
not one village showed the effect o
. gun fire or fighting. Each had bee
; Systematically plundered and the
fired.
AS the correspondent left Meme
! bound for more southerly scenes o
the same or of worse character
, Russian prisoners were just complet
: ing the burial Of their III comrade
| who had part in the destruction O
the district. Every hundred yard
there were teams hauling fugitive
! and their remaining belongings, flee
: ing from possible future invasion o
because there was nothing left 70
. them to stay for.