New-York tribune., 1915-03-22
FIGHTING THE WINTER
ON THE POLISH FRONT
Nothing but Ruins ard Snow and Deserted Villages
in the Wastes Between the Shifting German
and Russian Battle Lines
Bv JAMES O'DONNELL BENNETT.

Important; a close fitting, fur lined
hood Of black leather. such as the
aeroplsne men wear-and don't forget
the leather face piece that buttons
across it, and a cloak of thin rubber
so thin that when you are not wearing
it it can be carried in a coat pocket.
Not because of dust, but because the
eyes must be protected from wind and
snow. you must have motor goggles,
and be sure to get a pair provided with
the new kind of tough glass that does
not splinter when struck by a flying
clod
What with the Knapsack you must
take on these trips, a rug Is going to be
bothersOme 10 carry in case you have
any marching to do, put IN the auto it
will be worth all the trouble it later
may cost. The most trying part of
these 100 and 200 mile jaunts is the
misery from cold feet.
Roads Only in Name.
Leaving Posen at in the morning
we shall be lucky enough if we reach
Lowicz at in the evening, in time TO
hunt quarters and some food before 1t
is pitch dark-that is, barring acct
dents. The roads arc shocking, and
accidents are probable.
We shall rush through market
squares, where brass samovars. resting
on boards laid over trestles, are send
ing up faint wreaths OF blue smoke. In
one village square ] counted forty,
tended by short-legged, broad-backed
Polish and Russian women and patron
lied by beaming German soldiers, who
paid pfennigs for cups of scalding tea
that, if it was not much as to flavor
was at least warming and therefore a
blessing.
For hours upon hours VIC shall 90
plunging through regions as silent as
the desert, the black, motionless arms
of windmills standing stark against
the gray sky; gaunt crosses, garlande ed
with wreaths of oak leaves, rising by
the roadside, and wan blue and white
statues of the Virgin with the Child in
her arms. Sometimes the snow has
drifted over the naked body Of the
Child in her arms. making a piteous
coverlct for the body; and all over the
scene blackbirds, wheeling in leisurely
circles. They seek the carrion OF war.
Crime and Wretched Ruin.
We shall sec ruin, CRIME and wretch
cdness among the native population of
this doubly stricken region stricken
by war and stricken by ignorance-and
we shall see enormous activity on the
part of the invader.
BY the time we have got little moro
than half the way to Lowicz we shall
find every town more or less shot TO
pieces; sometimes only on its out
skirts, sometimes the very vitals of IL
torn asunder by bombardment- -
churches unroofed, inns with only two
walls standing, houses with only the
four mouthed centre chimney marking
the place where families used TO gather
round the fire. Somewhat before klo-
dawa this begins, and after Klodawa
every town and village straight on TO
Bolimow is this way-dozens of them,
should say. And yet IN none is the
destruction by any means total. Al
ways something and often much has
survived bombardment and street hight
ing, and amid the wreckage life re-
sumes, and the people 20 about their
tasks. and dark eyed children play
shrilly in the snow.
We shall pass thousands Of brown
coated prisoners. being marched INTO
Germany five abreast in columns
mile long Sallow, iuscrutable- looking
men; no sorrow in their faces, no
signs Of the wretchcdness they must
feel-just faces, unwashed and patient.
The weary column passes "A church
yard. Amid the graves rises huge
cross Of timber. garlanded with oak
leaves and the leaves fecbed here and
there with roscttes of bright-colored
paper Around the cross hundred