The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-23

fierce night attack on the Bsura. The Germans had taken their trenches; the Siberans had retaken them, and taken the German trenches. Before morning rne trenches had four times changed hands
 Four hours later the men were in War saw, singing and joking on the road. A company which had 150 men in the even
 ing had only 90 in the morning, but these SC men, without an officer, stayed stouty ib their trench, and repelled new Ger man attacks A private soldier named Lipowsky took command. He reinquished 1t only after he had had three wouncs. Most of the Siberians who marched through here had trophies tied to their
 haversacks. Some had German helmets; others pieces of German uniforms; others had German buttons pinned to their grey lambskin ''papakha" hats As they strode down the Nowy Swiat they chanted alood the 'Vistula" song which is as popular
 In Russia az "Tipperary" is in Britain. Russias Asiatic soldiers have their
 special customs, idiosyncrasies. race
 pride and preJudices. The Moslems till
 lately. believed themselves superior to the Christians. The reason was that
 the Christians drank vodka. and the Moslems did not. Now the vodka pro l hibition has stopped all drinking and
 the Moslems feel less superior I heard Tartar telling Russian We are all equal now The Tartars are great tea ! drinkers The Mingrelians from the Caucasus also drink tea: they have the
 habit of flavoring 1t with tobacco. A
 little bit of tobacco is dropped into the hot tea, allowed to brew, and removed l The Kirghiz horsemen, who make ex- l cellent cavalry. drink only water but l they have a frantic horror of water
 anywhere except in their stomachs l This is because Kirghiz never washes l m l more than he dreads bullets This was i shown in my friend, Captain Volkoff $ l presence, when Kirghiz cavalry We're l escortng a transport train over the 1 little river Radomka a Vistula tribu- tary. The transport train was under l fire. The Germans had shelled the bridge to bits, and the carts had to l cross by a ford The Kirghiz escort kept their feet round their horses necks so as to keep clear of the water. A German shell burst. killed a Kirghiz's horse and badly wounded
 the riders cheek. The Kirghiz came down in the water on his feet He
 paid no attention to his wound. He
 rushed frantically out of the stream,
 took off his boots, shook out the water.
 carefully dried his hands. and only hen I put a dry hand to his face, and tried
 to stop the bleeding. When a surgeon
 came along and started to wash the
 
 his mind.
 Every Asiatic race in the army here } has its good and bad points from fight
 ing and working point of view. Often
 you can tell a mans race and religion by his work, and If you know his race and religion you can judge best how to
 employ him. The Tartars shine at all sorts of practical and domestic work
 Even in the Christian Caucasus regiments the cook and ''porridge- boiler are always Tartars The Tartars do the regimenta chaffering. bargaining, buying, and requi sitioning. When it's a case of voluntary
 sale of stock they can beat any Christian
 Armenian, Greek or Jew. As fighting
 men the Tartar soldiers do good wori
 with the spade. They are patient ant enduring. The Georgian soldiers. an of ficer of Georgian race tells me are show ing more fire. but they lack the Tartar staying power. These are the Tartar,
 from the Caucasus. The volga Tartar , l soldiers are hardy, eat very little ant { are tremendous marchers. The Tartar from the Caucasus are indifferent march CTS. They say that they "cannot walk il l flat country They are used to havin, , the soles of their feet always incline 3 lup or down, and the flat. soppy Polis ! land expresses them. Caucasus Tartar do good work in the Carpathians as the a need to, for they are opposed by the cracl | Austrian Alpine Jaegers. The Caucasu . Circassians are good riders: they beat tn :. Cossacks, but are inferior to the Fur ' comans of West Asia. They arc no goo f 4s horse doctors; they cannot be made t Q look after their horses. The Mingrelian Il who come from the northwest part 0 |. the Caucasus are magnificent shots: the S are sharp-tongued, usually play the rol Q of regimental humorists, and have pro Q voked the proverb: "A Mingrelan jolz
 is like a Mingrelian shot; it hits" Tn . Armenians make good soldiers Ten thou sand of, them. mostly from the counvr round Kars, are fighting at the Polls | front. and thousands more fight agains the Turks in the Caucasus. Geners Sterbaton. who has commanded . bal talion largely composed of Armenian, tells me that they are good soldiers. bray | and extremely patient under pain.
 M Russia's appreciation of her Asiatic so T diars is ahoWn hH tho fact that ahe givg