Bismarck daily tribune., 1915-12-28

streets and along the river jetties in.
dicate that the region is Still in the
base zone in rear of 3 large army.
Up the Danube.
Tie Associated Press correspond.
cnt made the trip up the Danube
from Palamka, Bulgaria, to Orsovn.
Hungary, aboard the Austrian moni.
tor, Sava, into which all the fruits
of experience in Danube warfare dur.
ing the last year have been embod
led. For boat Of her tonnage the
Sava, as also her sister s.,ip, the
Tcmes, must be looked upon as re-
markable example of how much heavy
and light artillery may be crammed
into small space. Her main battery
would do credit to small cruiser.
while a speed Of from % to 26 knots
makes the Sava class an enemy TO
be respected. 's'r
The monitor left LON Palanka at
$50 a. III. Driving sheets or rain ant
a cold wind drove everybody into the
ships cubby-hOle of mess room.
Hot tea and rum helped to cheer
those whom a long walk through
Lom Palanka's muddy streets, and
finally tight-rope performance on
the timbers of an uncompleted jetty
had robbed of good humor. The Ofll-
GERS and men Of the Austrian Danube
fleet have all seen service in tie
navy, and being a genuine seafarer
and light-hearted Austrian to boot,
the commander of the Sava explain
ed to the passenger that in addition
to having run the risk of slipping
from a wet stringpiece of the jetty
into the deep, muddy water of the
blue" Danube, he might, during the
course of the day, sail shyward, i'm
PEELED by a Russian mine.
Five Hundred Mines.
1--WE have so far fished up over 3JO
mines,' he said. We have reason to
believe that there are another 300 in
the river, but the heavy rains which
have made life. in Serbia for our
troops one long round of bad Ian
guage, have also caused the river to
80 up about four feet Tie Sava
draws a little over four feet and the
mines generally lie from two to four
feet under the normal water level.
So we are fairly SAFE l" !" ~
ut would be interesting to know
how the Russians hoped to get those
mines out of the way IN case they
had to do the job" continued the
commander. ''The worst type of them
all, also of Russian manufacture, re-
mains alive, ready to go off at the
slightest touch, SO long as you exer;
the slightest pull on the ring by
Which it is moored. At the same time
the mine cannot be brought out of its
horizontal, or floating position. with
out it's electric contact arrangement
becoming alive. Then, off she goes
The only way of getting rid of these
mines is to shoot them. Probably
that is how the Russians intended to
get rid of them afterwards. If they
did they overlooked the fact that the
mine has first to be found and that
in dragging for it you are bound 10
upset it sufficiently to cause explo-
sion. .-
Much has been said Of .tie destruc-
ton wrought a. by the Germans and
Austrian heavy artillery in Belgrade.
A days inspection of the city shows
that the damage done TO- city build
ings Of any sort is virtually nil. An
expenditure Of $4,000 would make
good whatever masonry and window
glass there was destroyed. But the
old fort, Kale Megdan, Jared worse.
Its ancient walls were no match for
the modern shell. The deep moats
are filled with broken and powdered
brick. kale Megdan today is good
only for exhibition purposes, though
for centuries it held its head :1igh
among the strong places that could
not be reduced. The strong walls
and deep bitches present a sorry
spectacle. Parts of the wall we're
carried off bodily to great distances
and the park in which tie Belgradi.
ans used to listen to good military
concerts is Uttered with bits of brick
and rock, which the "3O5" and the
az" projectiles sent flying. At the
head of a walk stands monument
commemorative of ,Serbia's delivery
from Turkish rule. The various types
of Serbia's civil classes are shown in
alteration of figure above them, the
last being a peasant, hard of face and
raw of bone. Through the muscular
legs and the sinewy arms bits of
steel have crushed. emblematic of
serbia:s fate, perhaps. --------1,,-.