The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-09

1 Its only. robbers'.. The third battle Of l Sandomir was over. It was fought be- ltween the junior eonsistorial clerk of Sandcmir and a robber band called Eli jaites
 ..Elijates' are robbers of distinction. A spatch of war-ravaged land 30 miles square 1 near Sandoinir is given over to them. | This is the country round the towns of | Stasheff and Chmlenik. To the north is an important railroad knot, which tho l Russians guard zeaously. but the south is a roadless, railless land owned by no one and here bandits live. When the I lGeranans advanced on kielce town in Sep 'ttenber criminals got out of the town 1 jail Honest, but hungry. farmers whose farms are now ashes. joined them. The ,l Heading robber sb3nd Is the Ehjaites The Russian authorities keep good order on | the main etappe routes.s but they. have no Il men or time to vaste on no-man's s land which the enemy has twice occupied and I may occupy again. So the obbers are | left alone. They rayage the country; lattaek the rich and sometimes the poor {. murder. and spy out facts about the Aus . trians which they sell to the Russians. Il That is another cause of Russias toler- | ance.. s. The battle of the early morning was q Homeric affair. The victor, Junior Consistorial Clerk WfenceslawskI had , gone to Stasheff He went in medieval
 
 , companied by bodyguard of trusty , Poles in sheepskn jackets and black , lambskin caps, All were armed On . their way back. within five minutes of ] the town gates, they were attacked by the Elijaites. In front rode the chief r bandit Stanislaus. holding his gun } straight at the clerk, The clerk and his
 band turned on their carbines, revolvers and Brownings. After five minutes bat 3 tle they left Stanislaus badly wounded on the field; slew two of his retainers l and got safe home with one horse lost. r and piece taken out of the tip of l the consistorial clerks ear. Today
 three days afterwards, Sandomirs cele- brated the victory. The bishop had gone ? to Random, some way north, but ser 3 vice was held in the cathedral, and there l was sermon in Polish on the text l Fallen among thieves"
 On my second day here tried to get to the Nida front where Russians and Austrians are face to face. Usually, Vistula steamers traffic as far as Po- ianez which Is about half way. Now the swollen river is full of floating ice. Captain Volkoff, an etappe cammand- ant, took me in a motor car to Polanez It is small town away from the Wis tula- on tributary. At Polanez, first heard the artillery roar violent up till l0 in the morning, and milder later in the day At Polanez I got description or the Austrian and Russian positions.
 Ihe Austrians are on the right (west) bank of the river Nida, and the Rus
 sians are on the left. This has been the
 position for two months and neither side is likely to break through. The Austrians have unexampled field forti-
 ncations, stretching 30 miles from the
 town of Opatowez to the town of Pint
 schow. On the right the most impor-
 mat part of this position, are four dou-
 Die lines of trenches with barbed wire
 entanglements higher. than a man. The H russian positions are almost equally
 strong The last big Austrian attack
 was ended by the explosion of a Rus
 slan fougasse mine. which sent 300 oi II the enemy into the air Small attacks
 are made every day After 17 such at.
 Jacks and counter attacks the relative
 positions are exactly as they were on the day I reached Polanez the
 Austrians tried to drive our men iron
 their Nida positions at three different points.
 The first attack began at II in tht
 morning saw nothing of it but heard the roar The second attack, made si N simultaneously at a place 12 miles north was out of ear reach Four companie.
 or Austrians perished in the river. Tn, 8 Nlda IS everywhere shallow. The Aus
 trians chose the shallowest ford. Tn,
 Russian divisional staff expected the at N e"Sh anu inllleu the IOrQ. This was QOnt by tunneling under the river and lodgins
 Ill tunnel a number of land mines in
 closed In steel cases These mines ar,
 set off by electricity. The Russian pla,
 was to pretend to be surprised sentr,
 was ordered to pretend to be sleeping
 Lhe husslans were little back iron
 the high left bank, and the ridge shel
 tered the Austrians as they marched int,
 the stream. The Russians, the attacker
 Imagined, were not watching who'll
 battalion of Austrians started to cross
 Alter the first company reached our banl II the land mine was blown up Five hun
 dred Austrians perished Some were kille,
 by the explosion; some drowned in tn
 big hole made by the mine and som
 crushed by ice. The explosion set in mo ton an ice foe The Russians dashed from their trenches and attacked In MI Austrans who had crossed the river The Austrians fought fiercely refused t,
 surrender and were all bayoneted Tn whole engagement cost the Russians f1v II men.
 At o'clock began a terrific artiller,
 roar rom a point long way to tn
 southwest. The Austrians began thei
 third attack, this time near the Md,
 town of kortschin. The etappe com
 mandant's motor car was going no fur
 tlner,west. Hoping to see the fight, hire,
 q peasants "telyega," on condition tha
 was taken the 10 miles to Pazanow fl
 an hour and half At Pazanow ther
 were terrific roars and reverberations
 The village street was packed with auto , mobiles of the Red Cross society cominl
 in with the first wounded. M. Jasnopolski . a representative of a Warsaw association
 told me that according to a telephon I message, the fight was developing, an, a bout six men every minute were gettinl first aid or the field. The Austrians ha, assaulted breastworks and redoubts a a point not far from Kortschin. whse Russians and Austrlans were on the sam bank. Fifty prisoners had been taken With Jasnopolslxi l got to Svinjani, whicl Is six miles from the firing line. Abou two miles in front of Svinjani our reserve were being shelled from Austrian big gun on the other side of the Nida The re serves were being moved back. Telephon messages said they were not wanted, a. our men in the trenches were losing little From the roof of Svinjani general stor got good view of the sheiling. Yer! big shells, mixed with shrapnel from smal