Omaha daily bee., 1915-05-23
WAR LEAVES RUIN IN WAKE
Devastation and Destruction is APP
parent Through the Whole Of
Eastern Prussia.
HOUSES R1FLED AND TORN DOWN

| Correspondence Of the Associated Press.)
| LYCK. East Prussia, May 2.-The de-
vastation and destruction visited upon all
eastern East Prussia cannot be more
strikingiy appreciated than by a trip
from this little town TO Crajevo, few
miles across the border.
The trip supplies a remarkable series
Of contrasts that are fundamental and
ffar reaching. Black is no more like white
than this part of Germany is like far
western Russia from the standpoint OF
population. customs. and the general APP
pearance Of the country.
From Lyck to the border every house.
without exception, It is said, has been
rifled and partly or entirely torn down.
The broad. well paved road is practically
lined with the remnants Of substantial
buildings. that In some cases, particu-
larry in the border town OF Prosiken. were
once attractive.
Along the road, as along virtually every
road of it's kind In Germany, are shade
trees-except where they have been cut
down to allow Of artillery fire. They are
40 universal that one gets used to them
quite unconsciously, and Immediately
feels the lack when they disappear.
The peasants. largely of the Polish
type. appear to be -seif-respecting and
pleasant. They greet the casual passerby
much as the farmer I'm America says
'9Iow do you do?" to a stranger along
the road. but with the same tinge OF
equality in the greeting.
III Now a Desert Waste.
The once pleasant and prosperous coun-
tryside from Lyck, to the border has beer
turned into desert waste, In village
after village there stand only the firm
substantial chimneys that even fire will
not level to the ground. Almost without
exception the remnants OF the houses are
of brick
Then one comes TO the line, and almost
In the time It takes to close ones eye:
and open them again the scence change,
so materially that one might be a hun
dred miles away.
First Of ell. the devastation has ceased
Not house has been 1eveled and not 6
building damaged. But In their verJ
character the houses proclaim the marked
contrast. The brick has given way t.
matched huts, low. one-story affairs. tina
fairly reek with filth and CRIME
In. the doorways stood, as an Associa
ted Press correspondent made the tril
recently, Sinking, groveling peasants
who bowed almost to the ground again
and again. as long as the automobile wa
in sight. They showed the same servility
to the military everywhere in command
OF the situation. and were quite obliviou
of the scornful reception of their abjec
salutations.
AS quickly as the character of tn,
houses had changed. so had the tree
vanished, and for thousands of yard
stretched bare. black road. oozy AM
treacherous, over which the automobile
made their way with difficulty
Models of beauty.
Lyck, Maggrabova, and other littl'
towns on the German side OF the border
but near the Russian line, had left muci
| TO be desired in the way Of cleanliness
and general attractiveness, but. as com
s pared to Grajevo, when It finally wa
, reached. they were models OF beauty an
, sanitation. 2" ~ '+
The nearest approach to similarity wa
the inevitable market square. almost a
, big in size as all the rest OF the tow
! together. But in place of the familiar
brick buildings. often of handsome con
struction. there lined the market nothing
more pretentious than dirty novels.
} The desperateness with which the Rus
: SLAMS had combatted the Germans 10
s every foot OF the territory was plainl!
3 evident in rows upon rows of trenches
4 always when possible. built on the top o
: rising ground. covered over with ever
= green or other branches and made witt
8 cunningly constructed loopholes. Rarel,
I. one saw a trench facing the other way
: one that the Germans had had time t
build hastily in the night For the mos
part the advance had been possible onl
by storming each separate height and b
> holds.