Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1915-02-04

Won %HlNDENBuRG.

From the Philadelphia North American.
What is the most impressive war
picture that has been published? Some
would choose a charging squadron of
morse. some a laundering battlesnlp.
some a bombardment. Our choice Is
the portrait of a manifold Marshal
Won Hindenburg, commander in chief
of the imperial German armies In the
east.
That face has in it for us more
thrills than any battle scene. 1t is as
rugged and massive as a granite cliff.
Ihe eyes CLEAN out of shaggy cav
I'm The great muStaches that half
cover the tremendous Jaws suggest
forests on a mountain side. The whole
co~untenance is that of impassive. re
lentlsss power. Beside it Kitchener's
stern features look almost insipid.
But 1t is not for his face that they
are erecting statues to Won Hinden-
burg while he is still at the front. He
won the greatest battle Of the war
the greatest, some experts say. in his
tory. ~Tannenberg made all Russia
reel. The vast armies of the czar have
not Yet recovered from the shock of
that unique disaster.
1t is a custom, not wholly fair, to
ascrlbe victories to commanders and
to ignore their soldiers. But Tannen-
berg was absolutely the creation of
eAAh IN Ndlllol = SSllllS. i
nickname given to him years ago in
~derision-"Von Hindenburg Of the
lakes-has become a title of honor
II overshadows his rank of field
marshal. The story of his triumph is
one OF the most curious in military an
nails.
Until his retirement on a pension a
few Years ago Won Hindenburg was the
most aggressive and picturesque OF
German generals-tireless in his work
and merciless in his warlike handling
OF his forces at the great annual man
euVers. His particular study was de-
tense of the western frontier against
the looming bower of Russia.
Ihat region offered peculiar diff
cultles for military operations-or pc
cullar advantages, according to Won
Hindenburg. For many miles the land
is cut up with chains of lakes and
sluggish natural waterways, with vast,
marshes intervening. To
make this desolate country one colossal
trap for the destruction of an invad-
ing army became an obsession with
the hard headed old general.
He spent months in exploring the
great swamps. lie took out parties
of engineers and mapped every Lake
and nlorass. every causeway Of solid
earth. He m~aneuvered through them
b~attallons, regiments and army corps
horse. foot and artillery. Once every
year he Insisted upon a great shan
battle. Dividing the forces equally, he
gave command of the Russians to
the ablest strategists of the wal
academy and invited them to break
through his lines. Invariably they
found themselves figuratively engulfed.
And actually the officers and men were
often up to their neck in water. The
Jest about Won Hindenburg of the
lakes became rather acrid.
But he never did laf I'M Thrao yoarS
age German conservationists demanded
that the Mazurian lake region be
drained and reclaimed for agricultural
purposes. They showed that untold
millions could thus be added to the
wealth of the empire. When Won Hin
denburg heard of it he literally roared
In protest. He besieged the reichstag,
he stormed the departments, and finally
carried his maps and his war plans
and his furious demands to the emperor
himself.
He insisted that those lakes be left
Just as they We're. When the newt
able Russian invasion came. he shouted,
they would be needed. The kaiser was
finally convinced. the lakes were saved,
and Won Hindenburg went back. grum-
ping put triumphant, to his retire
ment.
The rest is recent history. The Rus
sian onslaught came, and for a time
threatened to roll on to Berlin. Then
Won Hindenburg was m and
put in command in East Prussia. And,
like the pieces of Il familiar puzzle, the
moves of his long practiced strategy
OF the lakes worked to their predes-
tined end.
WITH TENTS and attacks and retreats
Won Hindenburs lurrd the Russian
armies into he maze of marsh and
quagmire. to which he alone held the
Key. And at the proper time he turned
and smote them. drove them deeper
and deeper into the gigantic trap, and
overwhelmed them az the hosts of
pharaoh We're overwhelmed in the Red
sea. Russia admitted the loss of so, 900
OF her finest troops: Germany says the
number was nearer 100000.
A good deal has been heard in this
war about German efficiency. But no
other example appeals TO US so power
fuzzy as this tremendous feat of Won
Hlndenburs. who would not permit the
nation to drain the Mazurian lakes be-
cause he wanted them to drown Rus.
slams In.