Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-06-25
IN THE WARS VAST ARENA
Lemberg Taken by the Austrians, Is the Capital OF
Galicia, Poor Province

Washington, June 25.-For months
war dispatches from Galicia-where
vast armies have swayed back and
forth, locked in one of the outstand-
ing, titanic struggles of history to de-
eide the fate of empires and of two
mighty races-have gripped the pop
ular attention more than the news
from any other battle theater. The
nature of this region that has beheld
among earths sternest, most bitter
scenes is intimately described by
William Joseph Showalter in state
ment prepared for the National Geo
Austrian Poland is practically en-
braced by the crown land of Galicia,
| This crown land is almost exactly the
| size of the State of South Carolina,
| but 1t has a population six times as
great If Continental United States,
exclusively of Alaska, were as densely
popular as Galicia we would boast
of a population four times as great
as that of Russia. And yet Galicia
J is the poorest of all the provinces of
! Austria. 1t lies outside the ramparts
of the Carpathians, which rob it of
| the warm winds that otherwise would
come to it from the south, and also
j turn back upon it the cold. winds of
the north. Thus these mountains give
| x, u,
| Springs; hot, blistering summers and
! dreary, chilly autumns.
1.-THE glory of Poland's past and the
| hope of her future are Cracow and
Lemberg, for 1t was the former that
| was her capital in the yesterday of
history and the latter that is her cap
ital to-day and which would be her
| capital tomorrow were Polish dreams
| to come true. In Cracow, the great
| nf al
ace still stands; but it is used as a
| barracks and not as the home of a
king. The cathedral is now the VAL
halla of its departed greatness, for
there sleep the kings and the heroes
from the Jagellons to Kosciuszko.
Not far away is the Kosciuszkobe berg,
one of the most remarkable memo
rials ever reared by the hand of man
| "a huge mound of earth brought by
! loyal Poles from every battlefield in
the world consecrated with Polish
blood.
THE country around Cracow is fla
and is devoted almost wholly to sma
farming and trucking. The peasant
dress in white Jackets and blu
breeches, and wear jackboots; thei
women folk, with large bright shawl
and picturesque headdress, brighter
and give spirit to the countryside
From Cracow to Lemberg the trav
eler encounters good land; it is fairl
level and entirely innocent of fences
boundary stones marking party line
and tethers or herdsmen keeping liv
stock where it belongs. The sam
methods of agriculture that we uset
in the United States before the day
of the selfbinder and the grain drill
are still in force in that region.
"It is in Lemberg that the onl!
Polish-dominated legislative assem-
bly, in existence holds it's sessions, FOL
Lemberg is the capital of Galicia, anC
the Poles, both because of theil
shrewd political ability and their nu
merical weight, control the Galiciar
legislature in the face of their rivals
the Ruthenians of East Galicia. The
city of Lemberg is largely modern
a compact nucleus surrounded BY
scattering suburbs.
while Galicia is almost wholly ar
agricultural region, and while a large
percentage of that agriculture is car.
ried on in the old-time way, there
are some few manufacturing neigh.
borhoods and industrial districts. Dis
tilleries occupy first place among the
industries, and there are many beet
sugar and tobacco factories Petro-
leum springs abound along the Car
pathians, and some of the towns in
| this region grow from small villages
to modern Beaumonts between New
Year and Christmas.
"Galicia has many of the worlds s
most famous salt mines. Those of
Wieliczka have been worked for near
ly seven centuries, at one time being
a principal source of revenue for the
Polish kings, Railroads are not per-
mitted to run near them lest their
vibrations result in caveins. Within
these mines are a labyrinth of salt
hewn streets and alleys, lined with
pillared churches, staircases, restau-
rants, shrines and monuments.
| Austria has never treated her
Poles as the Russians and the Prus-