New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-17
Science and Social Tea,
NTH Gun-Roar for Music
German Laboratory Ten Miles from Battle 'front.' i
Scene of Varied Emotions-Parties f1e'o
Amid Tubes of Bacii.
Rv JAMES O'DONNELL BENNETT

al infantry volunteers from Bremen
,.hn bad done their first fighting IN
Sontember at Bailly-or some such
nop,c"on the west front. He gave me
como data as TO the personnel OF tne
norticular "Korporalschaft.' or corpo-
raps souad OF twenty-five men, 70
which he belongs. and ! thought tne
Jsta would be hard to fit in with tne
"Uun" and barbarian" myth wnlch
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and some other
rrclisbmen OF letters like to accept do
gospel. an, ~
pren,en in that Korporalschaft were
asn,or composer. q sculptor, TWO
,beoIogical students, FIVE law students
,uo meets. a letter carrier (oldlsh)' an
arcbitect two medical students ana
physician. ,r;vatez
Tho occupations Of the other seven
mon Of the SQUAD my painter lrlehu
could not remember, but he tnousn'
tbsv were mostly young business men;
0f the twenty-five fifteen have d!eu
=, tho field of honor. or the remain
NO TON four are sick, three are reco'-
orinc from wounds and three are at 'he
front. ~ Tho
Al Rally this regiment came Tot ,he
FIRST time under fire, and the painter
though he loved to talk OF that uaS'
could not do il without choking up
ave did not know how we woulu
s+ond when we went into the hght, ne
said 1--WE could not be sure, but on,
we did stand! II was pesu-t-ful now
we stood. And we were victorious, 100
One cannot say how beautiful 1t was!
Two of nv Korporslschaft fell IN that
6oht Two weeks later we lost -FOUR
more. but since then, ah, so many
more!"
Commander at the Railroad Station.
Anotber -antithesis Of the
fine-fbred young painter-wlth whoni
like TO visit in Mlawa Is old captain
Butow, commander at the railway s'"-
ton. -,
In the midst OF blowing about ms
railway station the captain stops 10
blow about chose English" and when
he does that his stubby imperial seems
TO give off electric sparks. What DO
think of them. anyhow-those English
well" I reply, "some of the best
friends | have in the world are Eng
lish. and twice | have spent the hap
riest six months Of my life in England.
So. what should Think
80! Sol" says he. well, | sup
pose they are men like the rest OF us.
/ liked the Russians here at Mlawa,
too. when I used to come on business.
And they tell me those English boys
stand. So. so! So, so! Men like the
rest OF u.s."
If the captain is proud of the bust
ness end of his railway station you
ought to see him when he takes you
into the ecclesiastical department.
He has had the big waiting room
scrubbed and re-glazed and he has pro-
vided it with chairs and benches, and
from somewhere in Mlswa he has COM
Wandered a cottage organ. SO now
the waiting room is church for the
Feldgottesdenst Behold the pulpit
The Church by the Tracks.
Clergymen who had reached Mlawa
only that morning came into the sta
tion to see the new church. surveying
the work with approving mods.
Two of them went over TO the organ
and sat there a long time. for ! could
hear the music they made when the
CAPTAIN had taken me above stairs to
see the rest rooms and dining rooms
where the wounded were being re-
dressed and refreshed.
Strains Of old hymns foated to those
upper rooms. Elm Feste Burg" and
"Wir treten yum Beten," and the like
of those.
When passed that way half an hour
later the pastors in the gray cloaks
with the rich purple collars were still
grouped around the organ of the
choleric Butow's new church in the
chill station.
They were singing softly singing in
the enemy's land and the prayers Of
their hearts desire. Their grave faces
so intent and the spirit of them
so detached from the hustle of comlngs
and goings around them-made one OF
the most touching sights / have come
upon in this war. .,
Across the way on a bit of trampled
sward half circled by shattered houses
the ground was close dotted with little
crosses-the Russians who had fallen
in the double bombardment OF Mlawa
sleeping under the crosses that bore
the double arms, the Germans beside
them under the crosses with single
arms.
| stood a long time listening to the
music and looking beyond the station
plaza at the crosses on which the nell
NETS hung and at the little mounds
and the blackened houses.
"Wen." said Butow, dots war;"
But he was not choleric any more.