Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-08-16
WARSAW IS CAY AND BUSY
DESPITE RAIN OF LEAD
New Yorker Tells How Throngs in
Streets Laughed ut German
Bombariment
BUSINESS DONE AS USUAL
Cafes Filled, Motion Picture Houses
Run Full Blast and Great Crowds
Attend Races SO Long Under
Fire That Nothing Matters.
by SLOANE GORDON,
New York Writer Who Spent Several
Weeks In Warsaw just Before
Fail

spent April. May and part Of Juno
IN Warsaw
Many prominent Varsovians had then
moved their families 10 Moscow and
other interior cities. The United States
consul fernando de Soto Can An,eri-
can with 4 Spanish name. an Italian
ancestry and a Russian wife). seriously
contemplated sending ms family TO re
trograd.
giant Damoclesian sword has hung
over warsaw for Il full year. but the
!ncomprcEensible Poles haven't an
peared TO he aware of it--at least, nor
TO have allowed It to get on their
nerves.
In fact. the Havana prize fight ap
peared to me to create far more inter
est in the Polish capital when the an
nounccment of the Willard SUCCESS came
over the wires than did the battling in
the Carpathians.
SO LONG UNDER FIRE
THAT NOTHING MATTERS
How do you account for the appar-
ent indifference Of the people 10 che
war;" I asked Polish merchant
1T isn't indifference" ne answered:
1T is safety. We have been in the
line of fire for SO long that nothing
much matters now. We have ceased
to worry"
The whole history Of Warsaw has
been one of strife. 1t has been 4 bone
OF contention through the ages For
lo2 years II has been Russian po.-
session. decidedly dissatisfied and
sullen Russian possession. 1t has been
dreaming of the time when Poland
might be free and the kingdom OF
l., i0k, ID
might come again into its ancient own.
During the century Warsaw has
been bathed and rcbathed In blood.
After the great insurrection Of 1881
Russian Nicholas constructed the citidel
along the Nistula and announced TO th-
Farsovians that IL was designed to
raze their city to the ground on the oc-
casion of the next outbreak
There were other outbreaks periodi-
cally. however. eliminating In the re-
bcllion of 1905, but each was put down
without destroying the city of nearly
100000 souls. Bat thousands of Poles
went TO their death on Russias orttel
The racial cohesian-Slav lined up with
Slav In common war upon the alien
Teuton-has cemented a brotherh ood
that l,oa0 years of iron rule and re-
prcssive Law could never have done
aught but make Impossible. AS for the
immense Jewish population. is that not
always loyal to the environment unde,
which II lives?
Wherefore, II may be safely said tina,
Warsaw, under her languid surface, ia
intensely favorable to the success or
Russian arms. There are 10000 Poles
enlisted IN the Russian army. But tho
way Of Warsaw under fire is what
astourds the visitor
The city is "A great manufacturing
center. There are iron and steel mills.
sugar refineries. harness and leather
goods manufactures and Industrial
plants Of immense Importance located
there. a lack of raw material forced
some Of these to shut down as early
as last November. This caused dis
tress among the working classes The
devastation of three-fourths Of Rus
sian Poland-trst by the Germans and
then by the armies of the Czar-re-
suited in tens OF thousands of refugees
being driven into Warsaw.
The capture of the coal mines Of
Poland by the Germans and the lack
OF railroad facilities for the transpor-
tation OF wood threatened the capital
with fuel famine in March,
calamity that was only averted by the
arrival OF the warm weather OF spring
An epidemic of scarlet fever taxed
the health authorities 10 capacity.
Other outbreaks OF contagious disease,