The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1915-07-23
drive is
Continued
TGutOnS 1ightenCir-
Gle ON Warsaw.
COURLAND LAID WASTE
Russians Use Fire and Dyna-
mite as They Retreat.

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!. Washington. July 23-The :.
:. American consul at Warsaw =
;. cabled the state department :.
:, that the Belgian consul has !.
!. LETT Warsaw and that the !.
:. American consulate has taken =
:. charge of the affairs of both =
:. Belgium and Servia there. :
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London, July 23.-While prayers for
victory were being said throughout
Russia the Austrians and Germans
continued their drive at Warsaw from
the north. The west and the south.
Meanwhile they were reaching fur
ther north toward Riga, on the Baltic,
from which their advance guard is not
more than twenty miles distant
The tone of dispatches from Petro-
grad bespeaks plainly that the coun-
try is aware of the gravity of the
military situation, involving not only
the fate of the Polish capital but the
integrity of the Russian army in Po-
land, the northern and southern sec
tions Of which might be cut in twain
by decisive defeat along the Lublin-
Chelm railway. 1t is along this sec
tor the Russians are fighting most des-
perately, for this railway is the sole
great artery OF communication of Po-
land with Southern Russia. sweeping
away from Lublin and Chelm toward
Odessa.
Having several times been reported
within five miles of the railroad, and
according to Austrian claims having
pierced the Russian front, this sec
tion of the Teutonic army should be
within rifle shot of the railway, but
no claim has been made of having
seized it.
Teutons to Tighten Circle.
Northwest of Lublin, however, the
Teutonic forces have pushed forward
to the bridgehead positions south of
Ivangorod and thence northward
Around the circle which is tightening
en- Warsaw they have made steady
progress. though meeting with serious
opposition along the Narew river,
northwest of the capital
Elsewhere, generally speaking the
Russians are falling back, employing
the tactics with which they harassed
Napoleon in 1912. That is, they are
not only burning all bridges and de-
stroying roads, but are laying waste
the countryside with fire and dyna.
mite, destroying sue has they cannot
take away, driving cattle and other
live stock before them and leaving for
the invader a ruined and desolate
waste.
All Courland has been laid waste
and Windau, in flames, sent up a
glow visible many miles away. The
British public is following with keen
anxiety the campaign in the East
hoping that Grand Duke Nicholas may
stem the Austro-German tide, or al
least eXtricate his armies and contin
ue in further retreat the cohesion he
has been able to maintain thus far.
Front Eight Hundred Miles Long.
Eliminating the stroke against Rigs
the operations in Poland occupy {
front of roughly 500 miles, divisibls
into three principal areas:
The first, along the Narew, nortl
and west of Warsaw; the second, th'
center, on the Vistula between War
saw and Ivangorod; the third, in thu
vicinity of Lublin, where the Aus
trians and Germans are fighting TO
the railway.
The situation, as the British pres
sees it, is critical and the papers edi
torially remind Russia that as sh
checked the Germans at the gates o
Warsaw last fall and drove them bacl
when within eleven miles of Lublil
so she should now hold them.
Coincident with dispatches fror
Russia saying the spirit of the arm
is unbroken and the belief in ultimat
victory is strong comes the repor
that the feeling is growing that Rus
sia is doing more than her share 4
the war, bearing at present almost tn
entire burden. These complaints, a.
cordng to special correspondent
are not confined to the rank and fill
Russian newspapers contrast tn
colossal battle in which their natio
IL engaged with the comparative II
action along the western front