The Mankato free press., 1915-07-23
BARB Wire DID HOLD
BACK THE BOLD BOYS

UnUN I'LL ZULU UUlU
Warsaw, Poland, July 17.-Barb-
| wire, machine guns and excellent
railway arrangements, have been the
chief elements in the German opera
items in Poland during the past three
| months. Owing to overwhelming su-
periority I'm these three respects. the
| Germans have been able to hold lines
many hundred miles in length against
what was frequently a far superior
| force OF Russians, at least as far as
| numbers were concerned.
To defend the German positions
| alcng the little rivers Bzura and Raw
la, where the two armies have been
facing each ether since last autumn.
would In the ordinary manner OF
! speaking require nearly eight army
/ corps. But the Germans have been
able to maintain their places here
with a small fraction of that number.
owing to the fact that their barb wire
defenses and troop-transit arrange
! mcnts are so perfect.
4 FOuT- ndUcS IN bcptn.
Along this Bzura -Rawla front OF
about forty miles, the German barb
wire defenses are literally four miles
In depth. the entanglements being so
| arranged that in a military sense they
cover the whole territory. Behind
each group of entangiements, at the
| little strategic ganglions which are
| easy TO determine from the contour
OF the land and the lines of possible
approach, there arc posted little bat
| teries OF machine guns ready to sweep
/ away any rash offensive. II would
cost an attacking force hundreds of
| thousands OF men to wade through
these wire -entanglements. which zig
gag and crisscross I'm hollows and
/ mass themselves i'm hedges and walls,
all the vital points being commanded
by merciless storm of machine gun
| fire.
The only possible way OF pene-
tratlng such a maze would be by de-
stroying IL with a persistent storm OF
shells, and even this would require
several days, giving the defenders
time to bring up reinforcements over
| their admirable strategic railways. In
the meanwhile, also. more wire would
be laid down farther back.
New General Quiet Man.
General Alexeieff, who has been ap-
pointed to the command of the North
ern Russian armies in place of Gen
eral Russky (retired on account OF
i'll health. is quiet unobtrusive
man OF nearly sixty years. He has a
very intellectual face and an almost
/ shy manner, but military men say
J his brain is the keenest in the Russian
| field army. His staff consists OF sew.
enty-flve officers, and their headuuar.
ters is in little Polish city as quiet
and unobstrusive as the commander
, There are fewer than fifty soldiers In
the place aside frcm the general.
| stan. and the town is less military
in appearance than any In Western
4 Russia. I'm front OF the generals
quarters there are two sentries. and q
] small Russian flag hangs over the
door. In trenches miles away. stretch
| ing through forests and along hilltops
pumbcrless regiments and brigades
await orders from this building tc
| launch themselves against the enemy
/ The army which General Alexeieh
commands is more than twice the size
of that under the command of Field
/ Marshal Sir John French.
Will Have War Literature.
London. July 1.-THE British mu-
! scum plans to have the finest collec-
| tion in the world OF the war litera
ture produced during the present con
I fict. Not only English books, but
publications in French. Russian, Itali-
an. German and other European Ian
4, Guage are being obtained from every
available source.
we shall not expect or desire &c
obtain every war book published" ex-
planned the head Of the library, "fol
many OF them are Of course valueless
and we exercise the same discrimina
ton In purchasing a book about the
war as we do in buying other works
We want all the cream OF the worlds
literature, but we want none of tho
trash. or foreign war-books generally
we are taking about two or three out
:, of dozen. We have already secured
a fairly good collection OF what ha,
been published In Germany and Aus.
tria since the beginning of operations
we have not added any experts In
military literature to our staff. We
have our own experts who devot,
their energies each to the literature o.
a. particular nation. At is for them t.
deal with the war books OF the natior
concerned.
Germany and War Literature.
Germany seems to he very prone
TO religious works on the war. w,
have quite number of German theo
logical war books, although we hav,
received no German books for abou
ten weeks. we shall have to complet,
our collections of German works aft
or the war, although In the meantime
We shall pick up what we can as op
portunity offers"
The British museums library is ad
mittedly the greatest and most cos
mopolitan In the world. II has tn,
best French library outside o
France. and the best Russian librar,
outside OF Russia. It's collection o
Italian literature is unexcelled cx
cept for that in the Vatican. SO IA
as French literature is concerned. !
has books which do not exist even II
France. owing to the revolution ant
; the wars of 1S4S- and 1870. Refugee
OF the French revolutionary perio'
-