Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1915-01-14

GARRISON is DOOMED
Were Left to Die Under the
Hail From the Rus
sian Gums.
Ry WILLIAM q. snErnEnn-

Omitted Press staff Correspondent
BUDAPEST, Dec. 2.-lBy mail to
New York; what's the use of wish
ing good luck to a man who's GO
ing TO die2 There's no luck about &C..
But / did it, Just the same in those
last two days at Przemysl; iu those
last 4S hours before we piled helter-
skelter out OF the city, before the
Russian onrush. 1t was hard busi-
ness, too. These men We're going 10
stay in the city to defend II. There
were thousands Of MS who had been
ordered out, hut these men were Of
the few thousands who had been or
dered to remain and to fight TO the
last drop OF their blood They could
not go. They must hold Przemysl
or die.
l had dined thrice daily for some
weeks with some OF these officers
who had received the orders to re-
maln, and saying goodbye to them
was one OF the hardest things I've
ever had to do. / knew their smiles,
| knew their voices, ] knew their
Jokes, their favorite wines, their ia
vorite cigarets. something about this
fellows home life- something about
this chaps three children. had
dipped into their lives just enough
TO know and to form friendships. And
gan TO snap around the circle OF
Przemysls forts like a whip around
a sapllng, and Pr1emysl was doomed.
And that last evening, when said
goodbye TO these men who must stay
In PrZemysl through the seige, my
smile must have been CLASSY
Come to Say Farewell
saw one Of them once more It
was the next morning at 7 o'clock in
tho PgIemysl cathedral, barely day
light. The evening before the man
who is to be the next emperor OF
Austria had como into Przemysl in
his automobile after a hundred mile
ride. He had come to 60 to church
with these men; to join them in a
farewell mass. to say goodbye to them
and to tell them that Austria Hun
gary depended on them to hold the
forts OF Przemysl or die I'm their
wreckage.
And In this audience Of officers I
saw a few Of my Austrian officer
friends earnest faced, devout. kneel-
ing, howing crossing themselves,
reading the prayers partaking in the
death mass with a man for whose
kingdom -tO-be they were going to
give their lives | thought OF the
storm Of Russian shell and shrapnel
that would beat over Przemys as soon
as our batteries had been brought
In from the outskirts and this quiet
mass seemed to me like the moment
Of calm before tornado
Beginning of End
When the mass was ended the em-
psror-to-be climbed into his auto and
was Whirled out of the rings OF forts
a hundred miles away TO the safe
shelter Of the Carpathians at Neu
Sandec. Tho streets OF Przemysl
were filled with marching soldiers.
They had been brought I'm from the
rifle trenches some miles outside the
city and were to be rushed away from
PrzemysL Then, later in the morn
Ing, tho artillery began to come into
the city This was the beginning of
the end. II meant that the outer
defcnces OF the city had been with
drawn; from the farms and the hills
and tho valleys where ! had seen
theses batteries holding back the Rus
sian tide, they had been rolled 10 the
roads and dragged into the city and
now they were being taken to the
railroad yards to be loaded onto ears
that would carry them out of the
reach OF the Russians.
The safety OF Przemysl could not
last many hours. 1t wouldn't take
the Russians long to notice that the
Austrian field batteries were silent
and It wouldn't take them much
longer TO send out their Cossack pa
troll 10 discover why the Austrian
guns were keeping the peace Then,
after that, II would be only a matter
OF a few hours for the Russians TO
advance.
That evening when / diued in the
officers caslns there were no officers
there They We're out I'm the great
steel forts, ready TO begin their re-
slstanco TO the Russian storm
We left that evening I'm q Red Cross
train. The Russian guns were sound
ing nearer than they had sounded
before. Tho sound Of rifle battle
came to our ears some miles outside
the town the noise OF some Austrian
infantry regiment holding back the
Russian onrush until the last possible
man, gun and horse who wouldn't
be needed i'm the town could get out
Of Il.
Before the sun set the next dav
the Russian army had surrounded
PrZcmysl and my friends in the great
steel round houses were work.
ing their great guns for their very
lives. But only a few tens of thou-
sands Russians lowered around
PrzemysL More Of them went ON
into Galicia, and within a fcv days
they were a hundred miles nearer
Vienna than they had ever been be-
fore.
Przemysl is sull an Austrian island
In the Russian flood. It's forts have
not yet been battered down Daily &c
sends Its wireless message over the
Russian armies, over the Carpathians
saying. I'VE are still holding out
But II Is now an island a hundred
miles from an Austrian shore. and
some day, II the wireless doesn't
come, we'll know that the steel OF the
Russian shells was stronger than the
steel OF the Przemysl forts or the
hearts Of those brave Austrian off
GERS who stayed In Przcmys 20 hold
II or die.
Gasser at SapuIpa.